Snail
Eric Dando's first novel Snail attracted widespread attention as one of the very few unsolicited novels published by a major publishing company. At the time, he was the youngest Australian writer published by Penguin. The story behind its publication became a minor sensation and has been subject to rumour and speculation to the point where it has taken on mythic qualities. The general story is that Eric Dando submitted his manuscript bound in floorboards, though sometimes it has been said they were palings from a fence amongst other things. The legend continues that it remained where it was in the office of Penguin until someone tripped over it and read it.
Currently, Snail is out of print, despite being voted in a 2010 Penguin Poll as one of the Top 100 books. The poll was officially conducted by Penguin via their Facebook page in which Australian fans were asked to vote for their favourite Penguin book of all time.
Snail explored themes of madness, suicide, and drugs. It is a darkly humorous novel, but one which is undeniably positive and optimistic rather than glorifying the grunge genre of which it is a part.
'Printed entirely in lower case, the book seems to present a challenge to the reader - to make it through without being driven mad by the deliberate feyness of lower case.' - Tegan Bennet, 1996.
'Dando writes, 'jokes are always needed', and jokes - mostly good jokes - are his book's mainstay.' - Australian Book Review, 1996.
'Refreshingly, Dando's philosophical approach appears to derive from the Renaissance tendency to view the human soul or psyche as having an analogical relationship with the natural world...' - Philosopher Magazine, 1996.
Oink, Oink, Oink: A Savage Modern Fable
Oink, Oink, Oink, described by its publisher as 'a savage modern fable about science, family, television, and love gone wrong', is a satirical novel describing a young man's journey from his home in Japan to meet his estranged, mad-scientist father in Melbourne, Australia. It was first published in Australia by Hunter Publishers in October 2008. Following difficulties with the publisher, Dando negotiated release of his book and it is currently in print via Smashwords. In selecting it as one of the "best books of 2008", reviewer Laurie Steed called it 'like Orwell on acid' and many reviewers have commented on its surreal tone and humorous, yet unsettling, view of consumerism, environmental degradation, and progress left to run wild.
In 2008, Oink, Oink, Oink was also featured on ABS's First Tuesday Bookclub show with many positive comments which further defined Dando's novels as having a cult following.
'Imagine Woody Allen and Chuck Palahniuk programming a festival for your brain... Part satirical horror, part spooky speculative fiction, a savagely funny critique of consumer-driven society.'— The Big Issue, Australia
'Vonnegut meets Orwell in Oink, Oink, Oink…a droll and unsettling nightmare of a book.'— The Age, Melbourne.
'This black little fable begins with one of the best opening sentences I've seen lately, something that could sum up an entire generation's understanding of 20th-century world history.'— Sydney Morning Herald
'Oink is futuristic, zany, black, surreal.'—The Sunday Age, Melbourne
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
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 recognised 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.
Sonya Louise Hartnett is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.
Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill was an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and author who wrote The Great Escape, The Dam Busters, and Reach for the Sky.
Graeme Rowland Base is an author and artist of picture books. He is perhaps best known for his second book, Animalia published in 1986, and third book The Eleventh Hour which was released in 1989.
Robert Duncan Drewe is an Australian novelist, non-fiction and short story writer.
Chris Mansell is an Australian poet and publisher.
П. O. is a Greek-Australian, working class, anarchist poet.
Suniti Namjoshi is a poet and a fabulist. She grew up in India, worked in Canada and at present lives in the southwest of England with English writer Gillian Hanscombe. Her work is playful, inventive and often challenges prejudices such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. She has written many collections of fables and poetry, several novels, and more than a dozen children's books. Her work has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Turkish.
Maxwell Edgar "Max" Fatchen, AM was an Australian children's writer and journalist.
Lyn McConchie is a New Zealand writer of speculative fiction, picture books for children, a nonfiction humour series, a number of standalone books and many short stories, articles, poems, opinion pieces, and reviews.
Monkey Grip is a 1977 novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, her first published book. It initially received a mixed critical reception, but has now become accepted as a classic of modern Australian literature. The novel deals with the life of single-mother Nora, as she narrates her increasingly tumultuous relationship with a flaky heroin addict, juxtaposed with her raising a daughter while living in share houses in Melbourne during the late 1970s. A film based on the novel, also titled Monkey Grip, was released in 1982. In the 1990s, when critics identified the Australian literary genre of grunge lit, the book was retrospectively categorized as one of the first examples of this genre.
The bibliography of George Orwell includes journalism, essays, novels and non-fiction books written by the British writer Eric Blair (1903–1950), either under his own name or, more usually, under his pen name George Orwell. Orwell was a prolific writer on topics related to contemporary English society and literary criticism, who have been declared "perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture." His non-fiction cultural and political criticism constitutes the majority of his work, but Orwell also wrote in several genres of fictional literature.
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English novelist George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modeled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author without the involvement of an established publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, video content, and zines.
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 or "slacker" 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.
Helen's Babies is a humorous novel by American journalist and author John Habberton, first published in 1876.
Ash Lieb is an Australian artist, writer and comedian, known for his surreal humour and art. Born in Ballarat, Ash Lieb began exhibiting art at eight years of age, and at the age of fifteen, wrote his first novel, The Secret Well. Throughout his career, Lieb has created a diverse range of artworks, books, short films, and comedic performances, which have often possessed philosophical or psychiatric undertones.
Gordon Bowker was an English journalist and academic, who wrote biographies of Malcolm Lowry, Lawrence Durrell, George Orwell and James Joyce.
