From the first novel published in mainland Australia in 1838, women have been writing it for themselves. Among them are poets, prolific novelists such as Rosa Praed, and botanists like Louisa Atkinson. From household names to obscurity, A Bright and Fiery Troop rediscovers the rich treasures of Australia’s literary tradition. It is the first critical analysis of the major Australian women...

An urgent, passionate memoir of the author’s discovery of her Muslim grandmother’s true Armenian Christian identity.

When Fethiye Çetin was growing up in the small Turkish town of Maden, she knew her grandmother as a happy and universally respected Muslim housewife. It would be decades before her grandmother told her the truth: that she was by birth a Christian and an Armenian, that her name...

After arriving in Australia with her young son in 1855, Mary Fortune went on to become Australia’s first female crime writer. Lucy Sussex’s detective work reveals something of this remarkable woman, but Mary Fortune’s writing is her best testimony. Its verve and quality recreate Melbourne in the grip of gold fever and of life on the goldfields. She depicts the harshness of life in her time,...