2nd Star for Terra Nullius

Fri 28 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman, starred review| Posted by: Gavin

I’m delighted to see that Claire G. Coleman’s debut Terra Nullius has received its second starred review, this one from Library Journal! I saw it on Barnes & Noble, so go there to read the whole thing:

“Demonstrates Coleman’s promise as a creative storyteller. VERDICT Highly recommended.”
—Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

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An Agent of Utopia gets a PW Star!

Mon 24 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Andy Duncan, starred review| Posted by: Gavin

Following the first pre-pub trade review for Andy Duncan’s An Agent of Utopia (“Stories that borrow from American folklore, history, and a plethora of literary sources to forge fantasy worlds that are intimately familiar. . . . A rare book that blends fun with fury and tomfoolery with social consciousness.” — Kirkus) here’s the second . . . and it’s a star from Publishers Weekly!

Zany and kaleidoscopic, the 12 stories in Duncan’s third collection draw on Southern traditions of tall tales and span time periods, continents, and the realm of human imagination to create an intricate new mythology of figures from history, literature, and American folklore. . . .  This is a raucous, fantastical treat. (Nov.)

Read the full review here.

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There Is No Nobody’s Land

Thu 20 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman| Posted by: Gavin

A year ago on September 7th I queried Hachette Australia about North American rights to Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius. I’d read Veronica Sullivan’s review in the Guardian and was immediately intrigued. Intrigued doesn’t quite catch the level of my curiosity, though. When I was a kid one of my favorite novels was John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids — which happily for me is in print from our friends at the New York Review Books — a post apocalyptic story of a kid who realizes that his differences puts him in danger. The Guardian review reminded me of The Chrysalids and when I looked for a US edition of Terra Nullius I was frustrated, then delighted, to find it did not yet exist.

When I reached out to Hachette Australia they first emailed then mailed me the book, the latter took some time thanks to Massachusetts being quite far from Australia, and on October 27th I made an offer on North American rights. By November 3rd negotiations were concluded and we were a go to publish. In the intervening eleven months we’ve sent review copies hither and yon throughout the US (and a few to Canada).

Terra Nullius starts with a kid, Jacky, running, and never stops. It is a page turner that will resonate uncomfortably for many readers in postcolonial countries and I believe it will be yet another in the many steps needed in the ongoing discussions of land ownership, land use, reparations, owning, belonging, home, &c. in North America the way it has in Australia.

When the book came out in Australia, Claire was featured at many book festivals and interviewed a lot. I’ve listened to most of these (links copied from her website, thanks, Claire!) and recommend leaving a tab open and listening to a few. Besides being a great writer, she is a live spark and well worth listening to:

Home Truths: Telling Australian Stories. Recoded at Sydney Writers festival, on ABC iView.

Radio National the Hub on Books Great Debate – Write What You Know on ABC Radio National.

I had a great chat with Andrew Pople on Final Draft, 2ser Sydney, you can hear it here.

The second episode of The Meanjin Podcast has me talking to Jonathan Green.

I spoke to Jonathan Green about Australia, the White Invaders and who the real nomads are on Blueprint for Living.

I spoke to Beverley Wang for It’s Not a Race Season 2 Episode 2 – For Us Happy Endings Feel Dishonest.

Panel at Melbourne Writers Festival 2017, facilitated by Adelle Walsh, featuring Samantha Shannon, Sami Shah, Garth Nix and Me – Reality and Fantasy (Youtube)

Rhianna Patrick interviewed some authors, including me, at Genrecon for her podcast.

The Wire – Reframing Australia’s History of Invasion. My interview with Bonnie Parker.

I was on ABC Brisbane on the 4th of July 2017 talking about my book and what inspired me to write it for NAIDOC weekhttp://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/evenings/evenings/8657932. I am on at about 1 hour and 29 minutes in.

Hear me talk about Aboriginal literature, family history and the frontier wars on Brisbane Murri Radiohttp://www.989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/claire-coleman/

I was interviewed by Triple J breakfast, it’s somewhere in this podcast: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/media/s4497391.htm

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Malaprop’s and Moon Palace

Wed 19 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, Nathan Ballingrud, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Do you live in Asheville or Minneapolis and just read Gary K. Wolfe’s review column and were wondering what Abbey Mei Otis’s stories sounded like? Good news pour vous! We’ve just added two more readings for Abbey Mei Otis in those very towns! The first is on Sunday, September 30 at 3 pm in the afternoon, where Abbey will be in conversation with Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters.

Sun., 9/30, 3 p.m. In conversation with Nathan Ballingrud
Malaprop’s
55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC
828-254-6734

And the second reading is at Moon Palace (yes, the store that just added LCRW!), where Abbey will read with Anya Johanna DeNiro:

10/23, 7 p.m.
Moon Palace Books
3032 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis MN  55406
612.454.0455

Recent Reviews

“Otis actually belongs with writers like Kelly Link, who freely borrow genre materials to construct elegant literary fictions far more about character than spectacle. . . . As odd as these worlds are, they are populated by sharply drawn characters we come to care about through Otis’ luminescent prose.” — Gary K. Wolfe, Chicago Tribune

“Otis doesn’t use science fiction to lift the veil of the familiar and peer at what’s beneath. Instead, with great shrewdness and courage and originality, she reveals that the veil was itself an illusion, and the familiar a construct of anything but.” — Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, IGMS

“Dreamy but with an intense physicality that belies the violence behind the longing.”— Everdeen Mason, Washington Post Book World

“It’s a collection that will keep your heart half in your throat and half in your toes, and I recommend it.” — Tor.com

“In these stories, yes, there are aliens, robots, sex dungeons, chicken puppets, ghosts, and blobs of unknown origin and nature. But there is also tenderness and the absence of it. There is prose that delights. There are plastic people, and people not sure if they can bleed. What these stories do best is sci-fi. What these stories do best is love. And if you need to distinguish between the two, then Abbey Mei Otis is here to deny you. For if barriers between what is ‘science fiction’ and what is ‘literature’ haven’t already broken down, then this collection is Abbey Mei Otis burying a glowing-neon hammer into that tired beige wall.”— Columbia Journal

“Many of the stories share an emphasis on physicality and embodiment, whether it be bodies distorted by alien environments or artifacts or people thrown into their own bodies through suffering at other, human hands. . . . highly recommended for anyone interested in weird fiction, sf, or just a breathtaking reading experience.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Abbey Mei Otis’s stories are incandescently dark, if you can imagine such a thing (but maybe only she can). Full of danger and strangeness, but written in carbonated and astounding prose that is all her own, these stories create worlds and will make you contemplate (and worry about) our own.” — Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck & Other Stories

“These are amazing, electric stories—you can feel the live wire sizzling in them from the first sentence, and you know you’re about to take a wild, unforgettable trip. Abbey Mei Otis is my favorite kind of writer: her worlds are uniquely strange yet eerily relatable, and she knows how to make you laugh and weep at the same time.” — Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“Abbey Mei Otis deposits the reader in bargain bin worlds remaindered from the near futures of the more fortunate, worlds filled with space junk and toxic glitter, gel candy and gutted elk. These are stories for the many, for lovers and mourners, for those who want to split their minds from their bodies and those who know how to merge their organs in a single skin. In Alien Virus Love Disaster, language itself is in phase change. This book is a volatile, dangerous gift.” — Joanna Ruocco, author of Dan

“After I read this book, I woke up with bumpy, reddish growths along my spine. They burst, releasing marvels: aliens, robots, prefab houses, vinyl, chainlink, styrofoam, star stuff, tales from the edge of eviction, so many new worlds. Alien Virus Love Disaster is a super-intelligent infection. Let Abbey Mei Otis give you some lumps.” — Sofia Samatar, author of Tender

“Abbey Mei Otis speaks for a generation of people with fractured futures and complicated hopes. It is a collection about right now.” — Maureen F. McHugh, author of After the Apocalypse

“The aliens have already arrived in ‘Blood Blood.’ Abbey Mei Otis has them visiting in a way we’ve seldom seen before in genre science-fiction: Not as hunters, conquerors or even ambassadors, but as wildlife observers. . . . As brilliant as this cosmos and narrative is, Otis also manages to supply rich characterizations. It’s a concept sci-fi piece that tries something new and succeeds on every level.” —Matt Funk, Full Stop

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Terra Nullius

Tue 18 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 320 pages · $17 · 9781618731517 | ebook · 9781618731524

Download Terra Nullius Reading Group Guide (5085 downloads ) .

In the near future Australia is about to experience colonization once more. What has been learned from the past? A daring debut novel from the winner of the 2016 black&write! writing fellowship.

“So smart, unexpected, and surprising. . . . Incredibly moving and eye-opening.”
— Hugh Jackman

“Deftly twists expectations. . . . a debut that leaves you excited for what’s next.”
— NPR Best Books of the Year

“A gut punch of a book in the style of Le Guin, Atwood, and Butler. Claire G. Coleman’s debut novel blazes with truth.”
— Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

Wikipedia: Terra nullius (/ˈtɛrə.nʌˈlaɪəs/, plural terrae nullius) is a Latin expression meaning “nobody’s land”,^[1] and is a principle sometimes used in international law to describe territory that may be acquired by a state’s occupation of it.^[2]

Nominated for the Dublin Literary Award 2019
Shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Reading Women Award, the Neukom Institute Debut Literary Arts Award, the ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writers, and the Aurealis Award.
Winner of the Norma K. Hemming & Tin Duck awards.
Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Longlisted for the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction
Locus Recommended Reading List

Interview To Change the Dialogue: An Interview with Claire G. Coleman by Robert Wood on the Los Angeles Review of Books

Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from.

The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to bring peace to their new home, and they have a plan for how to achieve it. They will tear Native families apart and provide re-education to those who do not understand why they should submit to their betters. Peace and prosperity are worth any price, but who will pay it? This rich land, Australia, will provide for all if only the Natives can learn their place. Jacky has escaped the Home where the Settlers sent him, but where will he go? The Head of the Department for the Protection of Natives, known to Settlers and Natives alike as the Devil, is chasing Jacky. And when the Devil catches him, Sister Bagra, who knows her duty to the ungodly, will be waiting for Jacky back at Home. An incendiary, timely, and fantastical debut from an essential Australian Aboriginal writer, Claire G. Coleman. Do you recognize this story? Look again. This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history books. This Terra Nullius — shortlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize and Highly Commended for the Victorian Premiers Literary Awards — is something new, but all too familiar.

Reviews

“What Claire Coleman does with the theme of colonialism is something the like of which I haven’t seen before, something that only speculative fiction can do. I’m tempted to elaborate, but I shall desist. Readers should experience the power of this astonishing book for themselves. As the words at the back of the book say, ‘Do you recognize this story? Look again.'”
— Vandana Singh, author of Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories

“Terra Nullius is a striking debut from a new Australian Aboriginal voice. The speculative–fiction lens reframes European invasion, shifting and unsettling the reader’s perspective. The devastation of colonisation and displacement is explored with originality, compassion and insight.”
— State Library of Queensland Dublin Literary Award Nomination

“More than anything, a tireless belief in the promise of the future in the face of destruction, violence, and even genocide distinguishes the nature of survivance and the active gesture towards futurity contained in Indigenous storytelling — the power to animate science fiction with new knowledge, ideas, and experience,”
— Dr. Billy J. Stratton, LA Review of Books

“Coleman’s skillful use of science fiction elements enhances her story, causing readers to recognize the alien as something all too familiar. Terra Nullius possesses a universal impact and stands as one of the best novels addressing colonialism that we’ve ever read.” — Reading Women

“Fantastic. . . . Unbelievable.” — Liberty Hardy, Book Riot

“A difficult and powerful book.” — Catherine Rockwood, Reckoning

“Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius employs sci-fi tropes to challenge the reader’s identification with the story — and history.”
— Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project in the Sydney Morning Herald

“Terra Nullius is a moving, horrific, and confrontational exploration of Indigenous Australian experiences of the apocalypse wrought by British colonialism. The novel demands that Indigenous voices and knowledges are included in the formation of shared futures. As such, it is a deeply necessary text. Coleman is an exciting new voice who has taken SF’s flexibility, and its position as arguably the best literary mode for the fictioning of the otherwise, and gone some way to realising the genres under-tapped potentials. Her work signifies how the SF genre can address past injustice, through remembering rather than trying to forget, and thereby nurture new ways of being collectively. Coleman’s work challenges SF to be better, revitalising and compelling the genre to realise its political importance as an incubator for counterfutures, alternative imaginaries and as a home for the people yet to come.”
— Rachel Hill, Strange Horizons

“I thought I knew what to expect, going in to Terra Nullius.” — Adri, Nerds of a Feather

“Demonstrates Coleman’s promise as a creative storyteller. VERDICT Highly recommended.”
— Library Journal (starred Review)

“Coleman stuns with this imaginative, astounding debut about colonization. . . . Coleman universalizes the experiences of invaded indigenous populations in a way that has seldom been achieved. Artfully combining elements of literary, historical, and speculative fiction, this allegorical novel is surprising and unforgettable.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred Review)

“The novel, which was originally published in Australia and New Zealand in 2017, literally hits the ground running. Its opening sentence, introducing us to the fugitive who is one of the main protagonists, is ‘Jacky was running,’ and the pace never really lets up. . . . gripping, harrowing, but ultimately deeply humane tale.” — Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

“Australian natives living under the oppressive brutality of forced colonization struggle to survive, let alone fight back. It’s little wonder that Australian Aboriginal writer Coleman has been praised and nominated for awards in her own country for her thoughtfully woke debut novel about an invasion of Australia by punishing settlers and the subsequent resistance by a native people. The title refers to an obscure legal principle used by Britain to justify the taking of Aboriginal territory—the term literally means ‘Nobody’s Land.’ This harsh scene of brittle détente in the Australian Outback, set during an ambiguous point in the country’s troubled history, is viewed through the eyes of several characters, all struggling in their own ways. Jacky is an orphaned boy, now a slave on the run, trying to get home even as trooper Sgt. Rohan hunts him through the desert. Sister Bagra is a cruel headmistress at a mission for native children, abusing her livestock with malicious glee. Esperance is a kind young woman who tries to protect her flock of starving refugees. A government official charged with the protection of natives is so evil even his own wife calls him “Devil,” like the natives do. By far the most interesting character is Johnny Star, a trooper who betrayed the colonizers and has accepted his fate as an outlaw traveling with a rough bunch of native comrades. It’s a cruel scene indeed, made more so by Coleman’s purposeful parallels to the evil treatment of native peoples during the British colonization of Australia in the 17th century. . . . Coleman doesn’t hurry in bringing these disparate characters together, but when it happens, a powerful myth comes to life before readers’ eyes.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The novel’s striking realism is productively complicated by its science fiction.” — BCCB

“Coleman’s timely debut is testimony to the power of an old story seen afresh through new eyes.” — Adelaide Advertiser

“In our politically tumultuous time, the novel’s themes of racism, inherent humanity and freedom are particularly poignant.” — Books + Publishing

“Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nulllius is an arresting and original novel that addresses the legacy of Australia’s violent colonial history. . . . Coleman’s punchy prose is insistent throughout, its energy unflagging. Terra Nullius is a novel for our times, one whose tone is as impassioned as its message is necessary.”
— Stella Prize Judges’ Report

“Noongar writer Claire Coleman’s debut novel, Terra Nullius, envisions a continent disturbingly familiar and worryingly futuristic. . . . It is a future beyond the boundaries of familiar 21st-century post-colonial settler discourse on reconciliation and ‘settlement’ in a nation founded on the dispossession of Aboriginal lands, and ongoing ‘unfinished business’ with the first people.”
— Sydney Morning Herald

“A powerful, sobering piece of writing that makes us face an Australia we try to forget, but should always remember.”
— Adelaide Review

“A speculative sci-fi struggle meaningfully grounded in Coleman’s own Indigenous culture, Terra Nullius offers something new — a skilfully constructed pastiche of colonisation, resistance and apocalyptic chaos with parallels that sit unsettlingly close to home.”
— Big Issue Australia

“Coleman makes a significant contribution to the emerging body of Aboriginal writers such as Ellen van Neerven and Alexis Wright who write spectral and speculative fiction to critique the vicious fiction of the colonial archive.”
— Canberra Times

“Witty, weird, moving and original.” — Weekend Australian

About the Author

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. She writes fiction, essays and poetry while (mostly) traveling around the continent now called  Australia in a ragged caravan towed by an ancient troopy (the car has earned “vintage” status). Born in Perth, away from her ancestral country she has lived most of her life in Victoria and most of that in and around Melbourne. During an extended circuit of the continent she wrote a novel, influenced by certain experiences gained on the road. She has since won a Black&Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship for that novel, Terra Nullius.

Originally published in Australia by Hachette Australia.
Cover Design by Grace West.

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Karen Joy Fowler @ Smith College

Mon 10 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Karen Joy Fowler| Posted by: Gavin

Last week Karen Joy Fowler was in town (so we have signed copies of What I Didn’t See) to read at Smith College as her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was this year’s First Year Experience Smith Reads choice.

She was joined on stage by Ruth Ozeki and they chatted and Ruth asked questions the students had emailed her. After the reading there was a rush as attendees lined up to get their books signed. I was delighted to take this panoramic shot of the line as a reminder of the enthusiasm of readers for this author and her book — click to enbiggen:

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One More Week to Terra Nullius

Tue 4 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman| Posted by: Gavin

We had a slight printer error and while I sort that out with them Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius will be delayed a little. Some initial copies have gone out so you may find it in stores and the ebook is available (DRM-free as ever from Weightless) in all the usual places.

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