As per my last post, I will be starting the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge tomorrow.
I have collected over 20 books by Australian women writers which I have not read before, and have selected 10 which, taken together, satisfy the extra criteria I set for myself.
Those 10 books are:
(1) Jessica Au: Cargo (Genre: YA)
(2) Kerry Greenwood: Cooking the Books (Genre: Crime/Mystery)
(3) Mrs Aeneas Gunn: We of the Never Never (Genre: Memoir/Australian Classic)
(4) Anita Heiss: Manhattan Dreaming (Genre: Chicklit)
(5) Alice Pung: Unpolished Gem (Genre: Autobiography)
(6) Henry Handel Richardson: The Getting of Wisdom (Genre: Literature)
(7) Christine Wallace: Greer – Untamed Shrew (Genre: Biography)
(8) Kim Westwood: The Courier’s New Bicycle (Genre: Sci Fi/Fantasy/Spec Fic)
(9) Alexis Wright: Carpentaria (Genre: Modern Literature/Award Winners)
(10) Judith Wright: Selected Poems (Genre: Poetry)
I will read the other books I collected, but which did not make it to my list of 10, in due course. They are on my Goodreads shelf for the challenge if you want to check them out.
So, how am I going with my criteria?
(1) There are no repeat authors.
(2) I have not read any of these books before. In fact, Kerry Greenwood and (a few poems by) Judith Wright are the only authors on this list whose work I have read before. There are a few books I have been meaning to read for years, so I’m happy to have the incentive to read them, and kind of glad I haven’t read them before so I can read them for the challenge. Win-win-win!
(3) No repeat genres. I know I’m cutting it fine with a couple, but I think I’ve done pretty well here.
(4) This is an ongoing criterion.
(5) Anita Heiss and Alexis Wright are Indigenous Australians. Dr Anita Heiss is a member of the Wiradjuri nation and Alexis Wright is member of the Waanyi nation.
(6) Alice Pung is a first generation Australian. Some of the others might be, but I’m not sure. The aim of this criterion is for cultural diversity, and so I was also on the lookout for non-Anglo names generally (which is how I found Jessica Au). I found it much harder than I had assumed I would to find any Australian women writers with non-Anglo names. This is telling.
(7) We of the Never Never and Carpentaria are set in rural settings, as are some of Judith Wright’s poems. Cargo might be, too. It’s set on the coast, seemingly in a tourist town, but possibly in the city. It’s hard to tell more than that from skimming the first few pages.
(8) I am on track to fulfill this criterion as at midnight tonight.
(9) This is an ongoing criterion.
I will be posting reviews here as well as on Goodreads, so stay tuned. When I have finished the challenge, I will re-post the list of books with a sentence or two about each one.
If any of you have read, or will read, any of these books, I look forward to hearing your views, too.
[...] Comments « My books for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge [...]
What is your name at Goodreads?
Same as here – Jo Tamar. There’s a direct link on my sign up post, which you can get to through the series page (forgive me for not giving you the direct link here – I am using my phone).
[...] is a review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, [...]
[...] is a review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, [...]
[...] is a review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, [...]
[...] is an extra review for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. You can see my full list of books here. You can find a full list of my reviews, and other posts relevant to the challenge, [...]
[...] posted a precis of how I met most of those criteria when I posted my list of books. Here is the updated [...]