Basket

Your basket is empty.

HEAT 20. Plain Vanilla Futures

224 pages
Paperback, 22.3 x 17 cm
Published 2009
ISBN 9781920882600
ISSN 1326-1460

Editor

Ivor Indyk

Designer

Harry Williamson

HEAT 20. Plain Vanilla Futures

This Spring edition of HEAT offers a unique perspective on the Tian’anmen uprising in June 1989, written by the poet Ah Jian, the leading figure in the Beijing Beerism movement. His memoir of sex, revolt and rock and roll is an ironic portrayal of the literary scene in its relation to historical events. Our new series of literary translations from contemporary Chinese writers includes a short story by Hunan novelist Sheng Keyi, exploring the predatory impulses of an experienced older woman towards a young male athlete sitting opposite her in a train carriage.

In other essays, award-winning biographer Sylvia Martin examines the life of Aileen Palmer, the ‘difficult daughter’ of Vance and Nettie Palmer, who grew up in their shadow, fought in the Spanish Civil War, then spent the rest of her life guarding their legacy; Adam Aitken charts his father’s Asian fascinations; Evelyn Juers stirs up trouble in the houses of biography and fiction; Elizabeth Bryer dances to Peru’s African heartbeat; and Gaetano Rando pays tribute to Italian- Australian novelist Rosa Cappiello, author of Oh Lucky Country, who died last year.

In fiction, Shane Strange and Peter Murphy pursue the distinction between truth and falsehood from the different perspectives of a detective and a therapist; Michael Sala lays bare the uncomfortable legacy of a collaborator grandfather; and Claire Aman scatters the ashes of ‘the Captain’ in the estuary of the Clarence River.

There are new poems from award-winning US poet August Kleinzahler, Irish poet Kerry Hardie, Jennifer Maiden, Brendan Ryan, Robert Gray, Alan Wearne, Kerry Leves, Sarah Holland-Batt and Josephine Rowe. James Stuart and Caroline Caddy visit China, and Lindsay Tuggle goes to the rodeo.

In our regular art feature, which focusses on a contemporary Australian artist, we highlight the work of photographer Andrew Stark, whose candid black and white images document alienation, fear and anger in the Sutherland Shire, in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots.

Contents

Essays

Ah Jian – 1989: My Confession
Sylvia Martin – Tracing Aileen Palmer
Adam Aitken – An Essay on Fashion
Evelyn Juers – Trouble in the House
Elizabeth Bryer – Peru’s Heartbeat
Gaetano Rando – The Cappiello Legacy

Stories

Sheng Keyi – An Inexperienced World
Michael Sala – Old World Charm
Claire Aman – Sailor’s Tale
Shane Strange – The Written
Peter Murphy – The Therapist of Truth and Lies

Art

Andrew Stark – Down South: A Stark View of the Sutherland Shire, introduced by Daniel Mudie Cunningham

Poetry

Caroline Caddy, James Stuart, Jennifer Maiden, Sarah Holland-Batt, Brendan Ryan, Alan Wearne, August Kleinzahler, Mark Mahemoff, Robert Gray, Kerry Hardie, Kerry Leves, Josephine Rowe, Andrew Taylor, Marion Tracy, Maria Zajkowski, Iain Britton, Lindsay Tuggle.

Related Content