Diverse new offerings from First Nations writers

First Nations poetry has been a standout success in 2022—so let’s take a look at what other titles are forthcoming from across the diverse spectrum of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing.

With sales of about 15,000 copies to date (a huge number for this market), Goorie-Koori poet Evelyn Araluen’s poetry collection Dropbear (UQP) has defied the stereotype of poetry as a traditionally niche and low-selling genre in Australia.

As well as being the first poetry collection to win the Stella Prize for women and nonbinary writers, after the award’s eligibility criteria changed for 2022 to allow poetry, Araluen’s debut collection went on to win small publishers’ adult book of the year at the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards, and was the number-one bestselling book at both Sydney Writers’ Festival and Brisbane Writers Festival—no small feat for a literary title nestled firmly in the traditionally niche genre of poetry. 

‘We’ve seen festivals programming poets in more mainstream ways, for opening nights and in general panels, and not sequestering the poets to a single “poetry” session, and that has helped certain poets and their books gain attention,’ says UQP publisher Aviva Tuffield, referring both to the success of Dropbear, as well as Wiradjuri poet Jazz Money’s debut collection how to make a basket.

Indeed, for UQP, First Nations poetry is its main growth area in poetry sales. Tuffield points to Ellen van Neerven’s Throat, which has been put on the Queensland and Victorian high school English curriculums, as well as the Alison Whittaker-edited Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today as two collections that have sold well. 

Fiction and poetry

Forthcoming titles by First Nations poets include Gawimarra: Gathering, the third poetry collection by Wiradjuri writer, critic and poet Jeanine Leane, and debut short story collection New and Used Ghosts by established poet Samuel Wagan Watson. UQP holds world rights for both titles, both publishing in 2023.

‘A combination of poetry and fragments of lyric essays, Gawimarra mounts a substantial archival interrogation and a searing critique of national symbols and icons as it seeks to disrupt the calcified historical discourse and settler hubris of Australia,’ says Leane.

Says Wagan Watson of his short story collection: ‘One of the few commodities that Indigenous people cannot have seized from them is their ghosts. For many Indigenous people, spiritual presence is a constant shadow in the corner of the mind’s eye: a power without restraint. These stories explore those connections and presences.’

Also in fiction, UQP has acquired a new ‘epic novel’ by Miles Franklin winner Melissa Lucashenko. Edenglassie (2023) tells ‘two extraordinary stories set 170 years apart’ in Edenglassie (now known as Brisbane but Magandjin to its traditional owners), one at the time Aboriginal people still outnumber the colonists, the other in 2024. ‘With Edenglassie, Melissa Lucashenko torches the colonial bridges of Australia’s past, while redefining its literary future,’ says the publisher.

Also in fiction, the  Nakkiah Lui-curated Joan imprint has acquired an as yet untitled debut work of fiction by Gamilaroi Gomeroi woman Brooke Boney, the first Indigenous person on commercial breakfast television, for Allen & Unwin, which holds ANZ rights.

HarperCollins has acquired The Visitors, a novel by Jane Harrison, a descendant of the Muruwari people, based on the author’s play of the same name. It imagines the reaction and deliberations of seven senior Aboriginal men onshore on Gadigal Country as British ships arrive at Warrane, Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. The ‘extraordinary novel is bold, earthy, funny, deeply moving, a radical re-envisioning of history and an unputdownable work of fiction’, according to HarperCollins, which acquired ANZ rights in a ‘highly competitive auction’.

Harrison says of her new novel: ‘I once read that every country has a seminal issue that they grapple with. I believe colonisation is ours, and we don’t understand the events of 26 January 1788 from the First Nations’ point of view. This issue has gripped me for more than a decade and I finally have the opportunity to explore it fully in a full-length novel.’

Truth-telling in nonfiction and CYA

Engaging with truth-telling about the present is Long Yarn Short: We are still here by Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul writer, human rights activist and lawyer Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP, 2024). The debut details the author’s experiences of being taken from her family at the age of 10 and placed into statutory Out of Home Care. Despite her parents fighting for her return, she was kept apart from her family and her community for over a decade with only supervised casual visitation. UQP holds world rights to the memoir.

‘This book is an invitation for people to understand Australia’s deep and dark history is not history—rather it is very much alive and practised today,’ says Turnbull-Roberts. ‘I simply cannot put into a book all the racism and violence perpetrated against First Nations people, especially women and children, but what I can do is take you on a Long Yarn Short. Share truth, share struggle, share what justice looks like, with love.’ 

UQP has also acquired world rights to Personal Score (March, 2023), the first work of nonfiction by award-winning writer and poet Ellen van Neerven, described by the publisher as a ‘groundbreaking look at sport on this continent from a First Nations and queer perspective’. Meanwhile, HarperCollins has acquired world rights a memoir (as well as to two children’s series) by Australian tennis player Ash Barty, who says the memoir is ‘about finding the path to being the best I could be, not just as an athlete but as a person, and to consider the way those identities overlap and compete’. The memoir is due in November 2022. Also in memoir, Pantera Press acquired world rights to Gigorou: Are you ready to redefine beauty?  by Sasha Kutabah Sarago (March, 2023), a Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal and African-American speaker, writer, filmmaker and former model whose 2020 TEDx talk ‘The (de)colonising of beauty’ shared her experiences of reclaiming her femininity by redefining beauty.

Two new anthologies shine a spotlight on First Nations experiences. Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia (2024) is the seventh in Black Inc.’s ‘Growing Up’ series and is edited by author and public servant Samantha Faulkner, a Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal woman from the Wuthuthi and Yadhaigana peoples, Cape York Peninsula and Badu and Moa Islands, Torres Strait. Growing Up Wiradjuri, a junior nonfiction anthology edited by Anita Heiss and published by First Nations publishing house Magabala Books, was released in October 2022.

Also in CYA is picture book Come Together: Things every Aussie kid should know about the First Peoples by musician and Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara man Isaiah Firebrace, due from Hardie Grant in November 2022. Aimed at children aged five to 10 years, Come Together ‘will be a joyful and positive book for adults and kids alike’, introducing basic concepts on First Nations histories and cultures, says Hardie Grant. ‘It will cover basic topics such as the difference between a Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country, and will be a beautiful gift as well as ideal for the education market.’

‘Change starts with education,’ says Firebrace. ‘When I was growing up we weren’t taught very much about my beautiful ancient culture or my ancestors. I’ve only just started to connect with my heritage and I’m really passionate about making sure all kids in school get to learn about Aboriginal history … I want everyone who reads this book to understand more about First Nations People and the true history of our country. The more we can learn about each other’s cultures the more we can understand each other and live together in harmony.’  

Pictured: Dropbear author Evelyn Araluen at the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards.

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