Grunge is a rock music genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals.
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specifically literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
Chick lit or chick literature is genre fiction, which "consists of heroine-centered narratives that focus on the trials and tribulations of their individual protagonists". The genre often addresses issues of modern womanhood – from romantic relationships to female friendships to matters in the workplace – in humorous and lighthearted ways. At its onset, chick lit's protagonists tended to be "single, white, heterosexual, British and American women in their late twenties and early thirties, living in metropolitan areas". The genre became popular in the late 1990s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit. Chick lit critics generally agreed that British author Catherine Alliott's The Old Girl Network (1994) was the start of the chick lit genre and the inspiration for Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) which was wildly popular and is the "ur-text" of chick lit.
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as Aboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and "the beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
Andrew O'Hagan, FRSL is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. He is also an Editor at Large of London Review of Books and Esquire Magazine. O'Hagan is currently the Visiting Professor of Writing at King's College London.
Urban fiction, also known as street lit or street fiction is a literary genre set in a city landscape; however, the genre is as much defined by the socio-economic realities and culture of its characters as the urban setting. The tone for urban fiction is usually dark, focusing on the underside of city living. Profanity, sex, and violence are usually explicit, with the writer not shying away from or watering-down the material. Most authors of this genre draw upon their past experiences to depict their storylines.
Elliot Perlman is an Australian author and barrister. He has written three novels, one short story collection and a book for children. He has been called a post-grunge lit writer, a reference to his works being written following the 1990s genre of grunge lit.
Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and now lives in New York. He is a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hunter College, New York with fellow novelists Peter Carey and Tea Obreht, and has visited many universities and colleges all over the world.
Richard McCann is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he is a longtime professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at American University.
Eric Yoshiaki Dando, is a Melbourne writer, best known for the cult novel snail, although his short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Hot Type, Hot Sand, The Age (Melbourne), Best Australian Stories, the Sleepers Alamanac, Going Down Swinging, Cordite, Undergrowth, Verity La, The Diamond & the Thief, Red Leaves / 紅葉, Torpedo and The Lifted Brow. His most recent novel titled Oink, Oink, Oink: is a surreal, black comedy that plays with themes from science fiction, pop culture, consumerism, and genetic engineering. It was published by Hunter Publishers in October 2008, and reissued online as an e-book through Smashwords in May, 2011.
Drift Street is a fiction book by Australian author Claire Mendes. Karen Brooks says that along with Edward Berridge's The Lives of the Saints and Andrew McGahan's Praise, Drift Street is a grunge lit book which "...explor[es] the psychosocial and psychosexual limitations of young sub/urban characters in relation to the imaginary and socially constructed boundaries defining...self and other" and "opening up" new "limnal [boundary] spaces" where the concept of an abject human body can be explored. Brooks states that Berridge's short stories provide "...a variety of violent, disaffected and often abject young people", characters who "...blur and often overturn" the boundaries between suburban and urban space.
Benjamin Roy Winch is an Australian writer and musician. Brought up in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, Winch performed in the alternative rock band Movement from 1990-92 before starting to write fiction. His books include Liadhen, My Boyfriend's Father and Vanishing Points.
Grunge lit is an Australian literary genre usually applied to fictional or semi-autobiographical writing concerned with dissatisfied and disenfranchised young people living in suburban or inner-city surroundings, or in "in-between" spaces that fall into neither category. It was typically written by "new, young authors" who examined "gritty, dirty, real existences", of lower-income young people, whose egocentric or narcissistic lives revolve around a nihilistic pursuit of casual sex, recreational drug use and alcohol, which are used to escape boredom. The marginalized characters are able to stay in these "in-between" settings and deal with their "abject bodies". Grunge lit has been described as both a sub-set of dirty realism and an offshoot of Generation X literature. The term "grunge" is a reference to the US rock music genre of grunge.
Anthony Macris is an Australian novelist, critic and academic. He has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the Age Book of the Year, and been named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. His creative work has been supported by grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. He is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has been a regular contributor of book reviews, feature articles and essays to the national media, principally in the area of international literary fiction. He has been called a post-grunge lit writer, a reference to an Australian literary genre from the 2000s which emerged following the 1990s grunge lit genre.
Justine Ettler is an Australian author who is best known for her 1995 novel, The River Ophelia, which was shortlisted for the 1995 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction - Horror Division - Best Novel. She is a seminal figure in Australian "grunge fiction" or "dirty realism" literature of the mid-1990s and was labelled 'The Empress of Grunge'. Her second published novel is Marilyn's Almost Terminal New York Adventure (1996) but technically it is her first novel as she wrote Marilyn's Almost Terminal New York Adventure novel before she wrote The River Ophelia. She has also worked as a literary reviewer for newspapers such as The Observer, The Sydney Morning Herald, a teacher, and academic.
Luke Carman is an Australian fiction writer and academic. He is known for his collection of semi-autobiographical stories, which is entitled An Elegant Young Man. The stories are set in Liverpool, Australia, a suburb outside Sydney. He has been called a post-grunge lit writer, a reference to an Australian literary genre from the 2000s which emerged following the 1990s grunge lit genre.
The Lives of the Saints is a collection of short stories by Australian writer Edward Berridge published by University of Queensland Press (UQP) in 1995. Karen Brooks calls the book an example of grunge lit, an Australian literary genre from the 1990s.
Praise is the first novel of Australian author Andrew McGahan which won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1991 for unpublished manuscripts and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Inspired by the writings of Charles Bukowski, the semi-autobiographical account of a doomed, drug and alcohol-fuelled relationship became an Australian bestseller, and is often credited with launching the short-lived Grunge Lit or Dirty realism movement – terminology that McGahan himself rejected.
