Issue 46 / Fall 2012
46 / Australia
CNF's gone Down Under, and what a world we've discovered
Oi, mates—CNF’s gone Down Under, and what a world we’ve discovered! The new essays in this special “Australia” issue cover everything from “bikkies” to bora rings, floods to fires, and Captain Cook to Coober Pedy.
Plus, Geraldine Brooks talks about how her correspondent years inform her fiction; Robert Dessaix praises the pleasures of gossip; guest editor Leah Kaminsky compares creative nonfiction to general medical practice; a survey of Australia’s contemporary literary landscape; and more.
* This issue was made possible with special support from Peter Bishop at The Writer Conversation and Deborah Leiser-Moore at Tashmadada.
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FROM THE EDITOR #46
The story Geraldine Brooks tells in the second of this issue’s Encounters, about how and why her father became settled in Australia, is exactly the kind of story that cements my long-held belief that the creative nonfiction genre and Australia are inherently in sync—linked by content, style and spirit.Letters to an Unknown Friend
"What a wonderful thing is the essay! What a hymn to the human mind and its vagaries and cogitations—to its humanness."ENCOUNTER: Robert Dessaix
Two years ago, Robert Dessaix was slated to be a featured speaker at the Shanghai International Literary Festival, China’s most prestigious literary event, joining Scott Turow, Junot Díaz and other notable authors.ENCOUNTER: Geraldine Brooks
An interview with Geraldine Brooks, an author who has shown a remarkable talent for storytelling in multiple genresDiscovery
"The British navy vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage around the world was called the HMSEndeavour."Nation of Grief
During the year I lived alone in an old farmhouse on the edge of temperate rainforest, I had the strangest dreams. These dreams often came to me at dawn after long sleepless nights filled with the cries of invisible creatures.Battling Collective Amnesia
"I meet Uncle Kevin “Gavi” Duncan at The Coolamon. He softly tells me about a murder."Arms of the Earth
My first dugout in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy, where I lived from 1989 to 1991,was not cut deeply into the sandstone rock, and that was its drawback; I couldn’t hide far enough in, either from the light as it streamed through the kitchen windows set at counter level or from visitors when they happened to knock at the door.After the Flood on Harte Street
From the driveway, the view was brown. It didn’t matter where I looked: the picket fence, the long wooden steps up to the first floor of the timber house, the concrete slab in the built-in garage, the wheel barrow full of photos.Strong Loyalties
"Fairy bread! Hundreds and thousands! These are foods that deserve their own treatment."Writing an Obituary in a Hot Climate
"This is a long list. Let’s start with my mother. Why did she run away with that teenager?"Over the Moon: Our Waning Love Affair with Science
"My first two radio assignments were in delicious contrast."WRITER AT WORK
"One of my elderly patients, Valeria, has been coming to see me twice a week for the past 10 years."Surveying the Australian Literary Landscape
The pioneers, veterans, and newcomers of Creative Nonfiction in AustraliaThis Morn
This morning, I was six minutes late to launch the boat and pick up the black bream nets. The phone rang on the last stretch to the boat ramp, and I ignored it because I knew it was Old Salt hurrying me up.…And “kangaroo” is not one of them
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Moments of Magic
"I guess it’s quite a traditional approach, in that there’s a lot of planning and preparation. However, I view each stage as important, not just the final painted work."Total Freedom
"It was pretty soon after I started writing about my travels—and I mean in a ratty journal and not for publication—that I became interested in how the word “discovery” is used."Tiny Truths #46
Twitter nonfiction stories