HEAT 17. A Dodo Idiom

In this issue, James Bradley remembers the sexual predators that roamed Adelaide in his youth; Mandy Sayer tells a story of dogs, dealers, mobiles and mates; Peter Craven discusses the international range of Vietnamese-Australian writer Nam Le. There are Napoleonic histories from Antoni Jach, alternate histories from John Scott, and forgotten histories from Terri Janke. Indonesian writer Laksmi Pamuntjak portrays inter-tribal tensions on Buru Island, and Bernard Cohen wages war against the ungulates. Finding an opening in Picasso’s trousers, Robert Nelson explores the duties of the art critic. Desmond O’Grady is haunted by his doppelgänger namesake. In poetry, B.R. Dionysius channels the voices of lost birds in his ‘extinction sonnets,’ Dorothy Porter writes on Neanderthals and lost warrior tribes, and Robert Adamson returns with a new sequence on the Hawkesbury River. There are poems by Anna Kerdijk Nicholson, Stephen Edgar, Lindsay Tuggle, Sarah Holland-Batt, Robyn Rowland and Michelle Cahill. ‘Work in Progress’ focusses on John Scott‘s new novel N. The featured artists are Tom Alberts, with his series of bildungsroman paintings, and Juno Gemes, in a photographic essay on National Sorry Day.

Contents

Essays

James Bradley – The Element of Need
Peter Craven – On Nam Le
Robert Nelson – Picasso’s Trousers
Desmond O’Grady – Desmond and his Doppelgänger

Fiction

Mandy Sayer – We Want Our Dealer Back
Antoni Jach – Napoleonic Fictions
Laksmi Pamuntjak – The Story of Mukaburung
Bernard Cohen – War Against the Ungulates
Terri Janke – Mutton Bird Beach
John Scott – Work in Progress: N

Poetry

B.R. Dionysius, Dorothy Porter, Robert Adamson, Ronny Someck, Simon West, Anna Kerdijk Nicholson, Shevaun Cooley, Michelle Cahill, Lindsay Tuggle. Sarah Holland-Batt, Robyn Rowland, Craig Billingham, Elizabeth Allen

Art

Tom Alberts – 12 1/2
Juno Gemes – Witnessing the Apology