black inc. catalogue: july to december 2014

Black Inc.j a n u a r y – j u n e 2 0 1 4

B L A C K I N C .J U L Y T O D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4

Contents

July to December 2014

Ju ly 2 014

Australian History in 7 Questions John Hirst 4

The Professionals Stephen Mills 5

The Book of Paul Russell Marks (ed.) 6

Boganaire Paddy Manning 7

A u g u s t 2 014

Born Bad James Boyce 8

The Whitlam Mob Mungo MacCallum 9

The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely Mungo MacCallum 10

Coast Road Robert Gray 11

Twiggy Andrew Burrell 12

S ep t em b er 2 014

Quarterly Essay 55 Noel Pearson 13

Blood and Guts Sam Vincent 14

The Family Men Catherine Harris 15

Internal Medicine Terrence Holt 16

Contents

Contents

O c t o b er 2 014

Acute Misfortune Erik Jensen 17

Nona & Me Clare Atkins 18

N o v em b er 2 014

Laurinda Alice Pung 19

The Best Australian Essays 2014 Robert Manne (ed.) 20

The Best Australian Stories 2014 Amanda Lohrey (ed.) 21

The Best Australian Poems 2014 Geoff Page (ed.) 22

The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood Gwen Harwood 23

Stand and Deliver Steve Lewis (ed.) 24

The Invisible History of the Human Race Christine Kenneally 25

D ec e m b er 2 014

Quarterly Essay 56 Guy Rundle 26

4 July 2014

Australian History in 7 Questions

John Hirst

‘If there are genuine questions about Australian history, there is something to puzzle over. The history ceases to be predictable— and dull.’

From the author of The Shortest History of Europe, acclaimed historian John Hirst, comes this fresh and stimulating approach to understanding Australia’s past and present.

Hirst asks and answers questions that get to the heart of Australia’s history, including:

• What effect did convict origins have on national character?

• Why was the postwar migration programme such a success?

• Why is Australia not a republic?

• Why did Aborigines not take up farming?

Engaging and enjoyable, and written for the novice and the expert alike, Australian History in 7 Questions explains how we became the nation we are today.

John Hirst was a member of the History Department at La Trobe University and is now emeritus scholar. He has written many books on Australian history, including Convict Society and Its Enemies, The Strange Birth of Colonial Democracy, The Sentimental Nation and Sense and Nonsense in Australian History.

ISBN: 9781863956703 eISBN: 9781922231703Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 210 x 135mm Page extent: 208pp Print RRP: AU$24.99 Publication date: July 2014 Rights: World

5 July 2014

The ProfessionalsStrategy, Money and the Rise of the Political Campaigner in Australia

Stephen Mill s

Stephen Mills has conducted on-the-record interviews with every living national campaign director of the two major political parties. Their experience covers the 15 federal election campaigns from 1974 to the present day.

Built around twelve critical moments in Australian electoral history, The Professionals traces the transformation of the party official from administrative servant to highly influential, professional campaign manager, and the election campaign from the pre-television days to the contemporary world of social media, focus groups and million-dollar budgets. He shows how Australia’s political parties went from mass-membership organisations – which provided opportunities for grassroots participation – to top-down managerial enterprises. Internal control of the parties has shifted to a new centre of power: the Head Office.

The Professionals provides a fascinating new perspective on the contours of Australian political history and shows political parties as they have rarely been seen before – from the inside.

Stephen Mills is the author of the pio-neering study The New Machine Men. He also wrote The Hawke Years, dealing with the prime ministership of Bob Hawke, for whom he worked as speechwriter from 1986 to 1991. He is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney, and was a Harkness Fellow (1983–85) and graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

ISBN: 9781863956710eISBN: 9781922231727Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mm Page extent: 288ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99 Publication date: July 2014 Rights: World

6 July 2014

The Book of PaulThe Wit and Wisdom of Paul Keating

Edited by Russell Mark s

Presenting the one and only Mr Paul Keating – at his straight-shooting, scumbag-calling, merciless best.

Paul lets rip – on John Howard: ‘The little desiccated coconut is under pressure and he is attacking anything he can get his hands on.’

On Peter Costello: ‘The thing about poor old Costello is he is all tip and no iceberg.’

On John Hewson: ‘[His performance] is like being flogged with a warm lettuce.’

On Andrew Peacock: ‘… what we have here is an intellectual rust bucket.’

On Wilson Tuckey: ‘… you stupid foul-mouthed grub.’

On Tony Abbott: ‘If Tony Abbott ends up the prime minister of Australia, you’ve got to say, God help us.’

And that’s just a taste …

Russell Marks is a criminal defence lawyer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He compiled Tony Speaks! The Wisdom of the Abbott (2012) and Tony Speaks! Revised & Updated (2014). His first book, Crime & Punishment, will be published by Black Inc. in 2015.

ISBN: 9781863956727eISBN: 9781922231734Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 180 x 110mm Page extent: 80ppPrint RRP: AU$9.99 Publication date: July 2014 Rights: World

7 July 2014

BoganaireThe Rise and Fall of Nathan Tinkler

Paddy Manning

‘A rollicking tale’—Chloe Hooper

Hunter Valley mine electrician Nathan Tinkler borrowed big in 2005, invested in coal and by 2011 was a billionaire. He had gambled on a rising market and won. He lived the high life as only a young man would, buying luxury homes, private jets, racehorses, sports cars and football teams, but his volatility and reluctance to pay his debts were making him enemies.

When coal prices slumped in 2012, Tinkler had no cash flow to service his massive borrowings and no allies to help him recover. Within months he was trying desperately to stave off his creditors, large and small, and fighting to save his businesses and his fortune.

In this impressive biography, freshly updated, leading business writer Paddy Manning tells the story of Tinkler’s meteoric rise to wealth, and captures the drama of his equally rapid downfall.

Paddy Manning is one of Australia’s most respected journalists, having spent a decade on the business desks of the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and the Australian. He is currently business editor at Crikey.

ISBN: 9781863956734 eISBN: 9781922231260Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 198 x 128mm Page extent: 304ppPrint RRP: AU$22.99 Publication date: July 2014 Rights: World

8 August 2014

Born BadOriginal Sin and the Making of the Western World

James Boyce

‘Original sin is the Western world’s creation story’

‘This highly original, readable book shows how the Christian idea that we are all somehow fundamentally warped has helped to shape democratic politics, free markets, sexual anxieties and even debates about whether dead babies go to heaven.’—Marion Maddox, author of God Under Howard and Taking God to School.

According to the doctrine of original sin, humans are born bad and only God’s grace can bring salvation. In this captivating book, acclaimed historian James Boyce shows how these ideas have shaped the Western view of human nature right up to the present. The legacy of original sin takes many forms, including the distinctive discontent of Western people – the feelings of guilt and inadequacy associated not with doing wrong, but with being wrong.

As well as an innovative history of Christianity, Boyce offers new insights into the making of the West. Born Bad traces a fascinating journey from Adam and Eve all the way to Adam Smith and Richard Dawkins in this sweeping story of a controversial idea and its remarkable influence.

James Boyce is the multiple award-winning author of 1835 and Van Diemen’s Land. He has a PhD from the University of Tasmania, where he is an honorary research associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.

ISBN: 9781863956765eISBN: 9781922231642Imprint: Black Inc. Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mmPage extent: 256ppPrint RRP: AU$34.99Publication date: August 2014Rights: World

9 August 2014

The Whitlam Mob

Mungo MacC allum

‘We were a motley mob, we sans-culottes of Canberra …’

In this vastly entertaining book, Mungo MacCallum captures the spirit of a nation-changing time. He portrays the Whitlam government’s key figures – from Gough and Margaret to Lionel Murphy, Bill Hayden and Jim Cairns – as well as “the other mob” in opposition – Billy McMahon, John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser and many more.

The Whitlam Mob addresses some crucial questions: What was the night of the long prawns? Who was the playboy of the parliament? And who was “the toe-cutter”?

This is Mungo at his best: vivid and barbed, nostalgic but always clear-eyed.

Mungo MacCallum’s books include The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia’s Prime Ministers, The Mad Marathon and The Man Who Laughs. For more than four decades, he has been one of Australia’s most influential and entertaining political journalists.

ISBN: 9781863956796eISBN: 9781922231758Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mm Page extent: 240ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99 Publication date: August 2014 Rights: World

10 August 2014

The Good, the Bad and the UnlikelyAustralia’s Prime Ministers

Mungo MacC allum

‘The irrepressible Mungo MacCallum has for decades been one of our most entertaining political journalists. This breezy book is vintage Mungo.’ —The Australian

Since Australia’s birth in 1901, twenty-seven politicians have run the national show. Their time at the top has ranged from eight days for Frank Forde to eighteen years for Bob Menzies. But whatever the length of their term, each Prime Minister has a story worth sharing.

Edmund Barton united the bickering states in a federation; Billy Hughes forced US President Woodrow Wilson to take notice of Australia. Julia Gillard overthrew Kevin Rudd and Kevin Rudd overthrew Julia Gillard, thus paving the way for Tony Abbott.

With characteristic wit and expert knowledge, Mungo MacCallum brings the nation’s leaders to vivid life. The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely tells the tale of the many men and one woman who’ve had a crack at running the country. It is a wonderfully entertaining education.

Mungo MacCallum is the author of The Mad Marathon, Poll Dancing and The Man Who Laughs, among many others. He has long been one of Australia’s most influential and entertaining political journalists, in a career spanning more than four decades.


11 August 2014

Coast RoadSelected Poems

Robert Gr ay

Coast Road: Selected Poems is the definitive Robert Gray collection.

‘Individual, surprising, evocative … at once cool and rapturous’ —Lisa Gorton

‘An imagist without a rival in the English-speaking world’ —Kevin Hart

Robert Gray is a poet renowned for his originality and mastery. With influences and themes ranging from Buddhism and haiku to Modernism and the Romantics, Gray inhabits a landscape at once spare and elaborate, ritualistic and impulsive.

Robert Gr ay is one of Australia’s most acclaimed poets. Among his many prizes have been the Patrick White Award, the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal, and the Emeritus Award of the Australia Council for Lifetime Achievement. Books of his work have been published in the United States, China, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. He has written a prize- winning memoir, The Land I Came Through Last.

ISBN: 9781863957021eISBN: 9781922231949Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 198 x 128mm Page extent: 96ppPrint RRP: AU$22.00 Publication date: August 2014 Rights: ANZ

12 August 2014

TwiggyThe High-Stakes Life of Andrew Forrest

Andrew Burrell

‘This is a book that needed to be written.’ —The Sydney Morning Herald

The swashbuckling West Australian entrepreneur Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest took on mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto at their own game – and won. In this unauthorised biography, Andrew Burrell traces Twiggy’s business triumphs and disasters to reveal the complicated man behind the myth. Why do his mining ventures attract so much controversy? And what do his philanthropic schemes tell us about him and his plans for the future?

It takes extraordinary force of will, combined with boundless energy and cunning, to create enterprises on such a mammoth scale. With the value of iron ore now integral to the health of the federal budget, Twiggy’s business affects all Australians. This entertaining book gives a unique insight into one of the most powerful men in Australia today.

Andrew Burrell worked for the Australian Financial Review in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth before being posted as a correspondent to Jakarta and Shanghai. He is currently a senior business journalist at the Australian in Perth.


13 September 2014

Quarterly Essay 55Race and Recognition

Noel Pearson

Over the next two years, Australians will decide if and how Aboriginal people will be recognised in the Constitution. Professor Greg Craven writes: ‘We have a committed Prime Minister, and a committed opposition. We have a receptive electorate. There will never be a better time. We have no choice but to address the question. If constitutions deal with fundamental things, our indigenous heritage is pretty fundamental.’

In this notable Quarterly Essay, Noel Pearson shows how the idea of ‘race’ was embedded in the constitution, and the distorting effect this has had. Now there is a chance to change it – if we can agree on a way forward.

In place of race, Pearson argues the constitution should recognise Australia’s indigenous people. His essay seeks to show what constitutional recognition means, and what it could make possible: true equality and a renewed appreciation of an ancient culture.

Noel Pearson is a lawyer and activist and director of the Cape York Institute. He has published many essays and newspaper articles. Up from the Mission charts his life and thought from his early days as a native title lawyer to his position today as one of Australia’s most influential figures. His previous Quarterly Essay was the acclaimed Radical Hope.

ISBN: 9781863956819eISBN: 9781922231826Imprint: Quarterly EssayFormat: PBDimensions: 234 x 167mm Page extent: 144ppPrint RRP: AU$19.99 Publication date: September 2014 Rights: World

14 September 2014

Blood and GutsDispatches from the Whale Wars

Sam Vincent

Confrontations between Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd activists make for exciting news reports during the Australian summer. But the sensational headlines and dramatic footage – eco warriors pitted against the might of the Japanese state – ail to scratch the surface of the complex forces that drive each side’s actions.

In Blood and Guts, Sam Vincent provides an objective eyewitness account of the whale wars. What motivates Sea Shepherd to risk the lives of its activists to pursue a relatively low-impact hunt in some of the most isolated and perilous waters on Earth? Why does Japan doggedly continue a practice it only started to feed its starving population in the wake of World War II?

While the International Court of Justice has recently upheld Australia’s claim that Japan must stop its ‘research’ whaling in the Southern Ocean, Japan is already planning to resume its whale hunt in 2015. Australia might have won the battle, but the whale wars seem set to continue. Blood and Guts is a vivid and definitive work of reportage that gets to the heart of this divisive issue.

Sam Vincent is a freelance travel writer and investigative journalist. He is a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age and has a degree in interna-tional relations from the Australian National University. He has been published in the Monthly and the Griffith Review. When not travelling, he works as a researcher and editor at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.

ISBN: 9781863956826eISBN: 9781922231659Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mm Page extent: 304ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99 Publication date: September 2014 Rights: World

15 September 2014

The Family Men

C atherine Harris

‘The Family Men is an intense distillation of the darkness that falls after the Friday and Saturday night lights have been turned out. This novel is shocking because it is so believable.’—Malcolm Knox

When you’re born into a dynasty of champions, any sin will be forgiven so long as you maintain the winning streak. But what if that’s not the life you want?

Harry’s success as a footballer is predestined, the territory that comes with a superstar father, and all the Club asks in return is loyalty and the occasional code of silence. But when his home-town media scrum dredges up an old scandal of his father’s, and Harry becomes embroiled in one of his own, he starts to question the reality behind the glittering facade of the trophies he wins and the pretty young things who mob him.

With piercing insight, The Family Men subverts the usual choices between winning and losing, guilt and innocence, courage and cowardice. Is true honour to be found in forging your own path or staying loyal to your pack?

Catherine Harris’s short story collec-tion, Like Being A Wife, was shortlisted for the 2011 Age Fiction Prize, the 2011 Barbara Jefferis award and as a manuscript for the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. She won the 2009 Josephine Ulrick Litera-ture Prize and was shortlisted for the 2013 Fish International Short Story Prize and the 2013 Bridport Prize. She lives in Melbourne.

ISBN: 9781863956833eISBN: 9781922231666Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mmPage extent: 272ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99Publication date: September 2014Rights: World

16 September 2014

Internal MedicineA Doctor’s Stories

Terrence Holt

‘[Terrence Holt] is Melville + Poe + Borges but with a heart far more capacious.’—Junot Diaz

‘Amid all the mess and squalor of the hospital, with its blind random unraveling of lives …’

Holt, whose In the Valley of the Kings was hailed as a “work of genius” (New York Times) and made Amazon’s Top Ten Short Story Collections of the year, brings a writer’s eye to his experiences as a first-year graduate doctor.

Intense, ironic, heartfelt, and heartbreaking, these nine vivid essays take us to the bedside of a patient dying in a house full of cursing parrots, through a nightmarish struggle to convince a man that he has cancer, to a life-and-death effort to keep an oxygen mask on a claustrophobic patient, and into the lounge of a snow-bound hospital where doctors swap yarns through the night.

Personal, poignant, and meticulously precise, these stories evoke Chekhov, Maugham, and William Carlos Williams. Internal Medicine is an account of what it means to be a doctor, to be mortal, and to be human.

Terrence Holt taught English literature and creative writing for a decade before enrolling in medical school. He now teaches and practices medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The director of an interdisciplinary MA program in medical humanities, he teaches, writes, and conducts research at the intersections between medicine and the arts.

ISBN: 9781863956901eISBN: 9781922231819Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 210 x 135mm Page extent: 288ppPrint RRP: AU$27.99 Publication date: September 2014 Rights: ANZ

17 October 2014

Acute MisfortuneThe Life and Death of Adam Cullen

Erik Jensen

An unflinching portrait of talent and addiction.

‘Fierce and spellbinding’—David Marr

In 2008 the artist Adam Cullen invited journalist Erik Jensen to stay in his spare room and write his biography.

What followed were four years of intense honesty and a relationship that became increasingly claustrophobic. At one point Cullen shot Jensen, in part to see how committed he was to the book. At another, he threw Jensen from a speeding motorbike. The book contract Cullen used to convince Jensen to stay with him never existed.

Acute Misfortune is a riveting account of the life and death of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, the man behind the Archibald Prize-winning portrait of David Wenham. Jensen follows Cullen through drug deals and periods of deep self-reflection, onwards into his court appearance for weapons possession and finally his death in 2012 at the age of forty-six. The story is by turns tender and horrifying: a spare tale of art, sex, drugs and childhood, told at close quarters and without judgement.

Erik Jensen is the founding editor of The Saturday Paper. He has worked as a journalist and editor at The Sydney Morning Herald, where he won the Walkley Award for Young Print Journalist of the Year and the UNAA’s Media Peace Prize. His writing has appeared in various publications, including The Monthly and New Statesman.

ISBN: 9781863956932eISBN: 9781922231802Imprint: Black Inc.Format: HBDimensions: 210 x 135mm Page extent: 160pp, plus 16pp pic sectionPrint RRP: AU$32.99Publication date: October 2014 Rights: World

18 October 2014

Nona and Me

Cl are Atkins

Rosie and Nona were born just three days apart in a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land. It didn’t matter that Rosie was Napaki (Anglo) and Nona was Yolngu (Aboriginal), they grew up as sisters, two halves of the same being: Rosie, the artistic dreamer, and Nona, the cheeky livewire. They were inseparable until the age of ten, when Nona’s family moved away.

When Nona returns, at fifteen, Rosie has become best friends with the glamorous Selena, a miner’s daughter. Her focus is now on the nearby town where she attends school, and where her long-time crush lives – Selena’s gorgeous older brother, Nick.

But, as Rosie falls in love for the first time, a political announcement causes ripples that make past and present collide. Tensions between the Aboriginal community and the town bubble to the surface. Will Rosie be able to stay neutral, or will she be forced to choose sides?

Clare Atkins is an award-winning scriptwriter and script producer for a myriad of successful television series such as All Saints, Home & Away and most recently, Wonderland.

ISBN: 9781863956895eISBN: 9781922231680Imprint: Black Inc. Format: PBDimensions: 198 x 128mmPage extent: 304ppPrint RRP: AU$19.99Publication date: October 2014Rights: World

19 November 2014

Laurinda

Alice Pung

‘Nothing has a stronger hold over a girl than the fear of the thoughts of her peers – thoughts that change five times in a day. No wonder things are so complicated with teenagers.’

—Alice Pung, Laurinda

Laurinda is an exclusive school for girls. At its hidden centre of power is The Cabinet, a triangle of girls who wield power over their classmates – and some of their teachers.

Entering this world of wealth and secrets is Lucy Lam, a scholar-ship girl with sharp eyes and a shaky sense of self. As she watches The Cabinet in action, and is courted by them – as she learns about power and repression – Lucy finds herself in a battle for her identity and integrity.

Few genres are more enthralling than the school story. In Laurinda, the acclaimed Alice Pung tells an involving, original story that captures the drama and pain of school life today, as well as revealing much about the choices of young women.

Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller with over 50,000 copies in print. It won the Austral-ian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award and was shortlisted in the Victorian and NSW premiers’ literary awards. Alice’s next book, Her Father’s Daughter, won the WA Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction. She edited the collection Growing Up Asian in Australia and her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age and The Best Austra-lian Stories and Essays.

ISBN: 9781863956925eISBN: 9781922231581Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 198 x 128mmPage extent: 288ppPrint RRP: AU$19.99Publication date: November 2014Rights: World

20 November 2014

The Best Australian Essays 2014

Edited by Robert Manne

In The Best Australian Essays 2014, Robert Manne assembles his picks of contemporary non-fiction writing. This sharp collection of essays about the human condition evinces lucid insight, shrewd understanding and heartbreaking empathy.

Previous contributors include Helen Garner, J.M. Coetzee, Gillian Mears, Tim Flannery, Robyn Davidson, Clive James, Chloe Hooper, David Marr, David Malouf, Robert Manne, Noel Pearson and Anna Krien.

Robert Manne is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University and a regular commentator with the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC radio and television. His most recent books include Making Trouble, Quarterly Essay 43, Bad News, and, as co-editor, The Words That Made Australia. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Literature.

ISBN: 9781863956956eISBN: 9781922231871Imprint: Black Inc. Format: PBDimensions: 210 x 135mm Page extent: 320ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99Publication date: November 2014 Rights: World

21 November 2014

The Best Australian Stories 2014

Edited by A m anda Lohrey

In The Best Australian Stories 2014, author Amanda Lohrey selects the outstanding short fiction of the year. Featuring a diverse selection, with new and innovative voices alongside the established and familiar, this anthology celebrates the craft of storytelling and the perfect short story.

Previous contributors include Kate Grenville, Tony Birch, David Malouf, Mandy Sayer, DBC Pierre, Frank Moorhouse, Peter Goldsworthy, Marion Halligan, Venero Armanno, Ryan O’Neill and Romy Ash.

Amanda Lohrey is the author of Camille’s Bread, which won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1996. She is also the author of The Philosopher’s Doll, Vertigo and Reading Madame Bovary, which won the Fiction Prize and the Steele Rudd Short Story Award in the 2011 Queensland Premier’s Literary. In 2012 Lohrey was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award.


22 November 2014

The Best Australian Poems 2014

Edited by Geoff Page

In The Best Australian Poems 2014, award-winning poet Geoff Page compiles an anthology that celebrates both the established and the emerging, the classical and the pioneering in contemporary Australian poetry. This is a lively, colourful and resonant collection for readers and writers alike.

Previous contributors include Judith Beveridge, Stephen Edgar, Angela Gardner, Clive James, Lisa Gorton, Paul Kelly, John Kinsella, David Malouf, Cate Kennedy, Les Murray, Dorothy Porter, Peter Rose, Robert Adamson, Sarah Holland-Batt and Jaya Savige.

Geoff Page is an Australian poet who has published nineteen collections of poetry as well as two novels, five verse novels and several other works including anthologies, translations and a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann. He has won several awards, including the ACT Poetry Award, the Grace Leven Prize, the Christopher Brennan Award, the Queens-land Premier’s Prize for Poetry and the 2001 Patrick White Literary Award.


23 November 2014

The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood

Gwen Harwood

‘The outstanding Australian poet of the twentieth century’ —Peter Porter

‘Gwen Harwood’s poetry is widely recognised for its stark intimacy and brilliant resonance’—The Sydney Morning Herald

O could one write as one makes love

when all is given and nothing kept,

then language might put by at last

its coy elisions and inept

withdrawals, yield, and yielding cast

aside like useless clothes the crust

of worn and shabby use, and trust

Gwen Harwood’s work is defined by a moving sensuality, a twinkling irreverence and a sly wit. This anthology brings together the best 100 of her poems, as selected and compiled by her son, the writer John Harwood.

Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most celebrated poets and librettists, published over 420 works in her lifetime, many of which continue to be studied widely in schools and universities across Australia. She has won the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and the Patrick White Award. She died in 1995, aged seventy-five.

ISBN: 9781863956987eISBN: 9781922231864Imprint: Black Inc.Format: HBDimensions: 198 x 128mm Page extent: 128ppPrint RRP: AU$24.99Publication date: November 2014 Rights: World

24 November 2014

Stand and DeliverFifty Years of the National Press Club

Edited by Steve Lewis

For the past half century, the National Press Club has stood at the centre of political and social debate in Australia. Leaders and opinion makers have sought to speak at the National Press Club, using its pulpit to discuss and debate the issues of the day.

To celebrate the club’s fiftieth anniversary, this book collects the best speeches of the past 50 years and brings to life the Club’s rich and colourful history and role.

Stand and Deliver brings together some of the most influential, controversial and iconic figures in recent history, including Bill Gates, Margaret Thatcher, Paul Keating, Julia Gillard, Germaine Greer, Bob Hawke, Barry Humphries, Kevin Rudd, John Howard and the Dalai Lama.

Steve Lewis arrived in Canberra in 1992 and spent more than two decades as a senior member of the federal parliamentary press gallery. He regularly writes for media outlets including The New Daily and appears on Sky News as a political commentator. Along with the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann, Lewis penned the best-selling political novel, The Marmalade Files. Their latest release, The Mandarin Code, will be published on 1 August 2014. He works for Newgate Communications as a senior adviser.

ISBN: 9781863956994eISBN: 9781922231901Imprint: Black Inc.Format: HBDimensions: 234 x 153mm Page extent: 320pp, plus 32pp pic sectionPrint RRP: AU$39.99Publication date: November 2014 Rights: World

25 November 2014

The Invisible History of the Human RaceHow DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures

Christine Kenneally

We are doomed to repeat history if we fail to learn from it, but how are we affected by the forces that are invisible to us?

In The Invisible History of the Human Race, Christine Kenneally draws on cutting-edge research to reveal how both historical artifacts and DNA tell us where we come from and where we may be going. While some books explore our genetic inheritance and popular television shows celebrate ancestry, this is the first book to explore how everything from DNA to emotions to names and the stories that form our lives are all part of our human legacy. Kenneally shows how trust is inherited in Africa, silence is passed down in Tasmania, and how the history of nations is written in our DNA.

From fateful, ancient encounters to modern mass migrations and medical diagnoses, Kenneally explains how the forces that shaped the history of the world ultimately shape each human who inhabits it.

Christine Keneally is an award-winning journalist and author who has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, Time magazine, New Scientist and The Monthly. She is the author of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. She was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia.

ISBN: 9781863957038eISBN: 9781922231956Imprint: Black Inc.Format: PBDimensions: 234 x 153mm Page extent: 320ppPrint RRP: AU$29.99Publication date: November 2014 Rights: ANZ

26 December 2014

Quarterly Essay 56Guy Rundle on Clive Palmer & the Palmer United Party

Guy Rundle

Clive Palmer is the wildcard of Australian politics. Since the last election, when this eccentric mining magnate narrowly won a seat in the House of Representatives – and his Palmer United Party gained three Senate spots – he has become a lightning rod for discontentment with major-party politics.

In this dazzlingly intelligent and entertaining essay, Guy Rundle observes Palmer close up, examining his rise to prominence, the role of money in politics, the roots of populism in Australian public life, the new media environment and much more.

Rundle analyses the ripples from the big rock Palmer has thrown in the Canberra pond. As Palmer negotiates with the Abbott government and rallies his forces, the question remains: how far can he go?

Guy Rundle is Crikey’s correspondent-at-large. A frequent contributor to a wide range of publications in Australia and the UK, he was editor of Arena Magazine for fifteen years. He has written several hit stage shows for Max Gillies and is the author of, among others, Quarterly Essay 3, The Opportunist, and Down to the Cross-roads, an account of the 2008 US presidential election.

ISBN: 9781863957014eISBN: 9781922231918Imprint: Quarterly EssayFormat: PBDimensions: 234 x 167mm Page extent: 144ppPrint RRP: AU$19.99 Publication date: December 2014 Rights: World

27 December

Black Inc. Recent Releases

28 Recent Releases

Power Failure: The Inside Story of Climate Politics Under Rudd and Gillard

Philip Chubb

ISBN: 9781863956604 eISBN: 9781922231512 Print RRP: AU$29.99

The Demographic Cliff: How to Survive and Prosper During the Great Deflation of 2014 - 2019

Harry S. Dent Jr

ISBN: 9781863956406eISBN: 9781922231369Print RRP: AU$29.99

Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation

Adam Bryant


Gazing at the Stars: Memories of a Child Survivor

Eva Slonim


Demokrasi: Indonesia in the 21st Century

Hamish McDonald


Anzac’s Long Shadow: The Cost of Our National Obsession

James Brown

ISBN: 9781863956390 eISBN: 9781922231352 Print RRP: AU$19.99

29 Recent Releases

Black Inc. Essential Backlist

29 Essential Backlist

Unpolished Gem

Alice Pung


Growing up Asian in Australia

Edited by Alice Pung


Piano Lessons

Anna Goldsworthy


Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East

Benjamin Law


Welcome to Your New Life

Anna Goldsworthy


The Family Law

Benjamin Law



A City Lost and Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne

Robyn Annear


Mad Marathon: The Story of the 2013 Election

Mungo MacCallum


The Words That Made Australia: How a Nation Came to Know Itself

Edited by Chris Feik & Robert Manne


The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays

Simon Leys


Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott

David Marr

ISBN: 9781863955980eISBN: 9781921870941Print RRP: $19.99

Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne

Robyn Annear

ISBN: 9781863956550eISBN: 9781922231574Print RRP: $19.99


Van Diemen’s Land

James Boyce


1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia

James Boyce


The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter

Dorothy Porter


Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport

Anna Krien


Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests

Anna Krien


The Best 100 Poems of Les Murray

Les Murray



Girt: The Unauthor-isd History of Australia

David Hunt


Holiday in Cambodia

Laura Jean McK ay


State of the Nation: Essays for Robert Manne

Gwenda Tavan (ed.)


Dog Days: Australia After the Boom

Ross Garnaut


Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia

Andrew Leigh


Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist

Bill McKibben


33

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black inc. catalogue: july to december 2014

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