I do a lot of reviewing, mostly fiction, and I’ve just finished judging 150ish books for a non-fiction award. I also get to read a fair amount of unpublished writing. I’m pleased, then, to have the chance here to write about reading that I’m choosing to do for pure fun or interest, even if I don’t get to do as much of that as I’d like. Mind you, the distinction I’m making between recreational and compulsory reading is, to some extent, a false one: it’s not as if I hate what I read for ‘work’ (not always, anyway). This year, for example, I got to review Marion May Campbell’s brilliant short novel konkretion (UWA Publishing) and Tracy Farr’s terrific debut novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Fremantle Press). And lots more. Still, my work-related reading places a heavy emphasis on the ‘here and now’ rather on diving into the ocean of older works.

I met Jeanine Leane at the National Library of Australia’s ‘Writing the Australian Landscape’ a couple of months ago. Her collection of short stories, Purple Threads (UQP), won the David Unaipon Award for an unpublished manuscript by an Indigenous author (an award with such a fine track record: whoever responsible for choosing the winners over the years has done so adroitly). In spare, unforced, matter-of-fact prose, Leane tells the story of Sunny, a girl who lives with her nan and aunties. In the title story, Sunny complains that the kids at school won’t play with her because ‘Your aunties are black witches’. The women offer calm but purposeful responses—‘Never mind, babe’, ‘I wanted to be a witch when I was young’, and they tell her stories—which further provokes Sunny’s rage. She wants action. She wants to be different.