Stormbird Press: defending nature and empowering communities through the power of story.

PO Box 73, Parndana, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, 5220Phone: +61 (0)8 8121 5841ABN 15 161 185 351

Author: Amy BarkerRelease date: April 28, 2020RRP: AU$29.99 (pbk), $9.99 (ebk)Territory: English language marketFormat: Paperback and eBookSize: 203 x 128 mmPages: 324ISBNs: 978-1-925856-22-4 (pbk) 978-1-925856-23-1 (ebk)

Paradise Earth Meta

Media contact: Margi Prideaux +61 (0)476 109 875production@stormbirdpress.com

‘A task fraught with dangers: to be an honest and unflinching guide to this most terrible of Australia’s hauntings. Amy Barker reminds me of the young Dostoevsky, how in his novel of a Siberian prison camp he could descend the ladder of humanity step by step because even in the most degraded there must still be the divine spark. Not a safe place for writer or reader —but a novel of blazing and humbling integrity.’

— Peter Bishop, writers’ advocate and formerly Creative Director of Varuna, the

Writers’ House.

‘In a masterful follow-up to her award-winning debut novel Omega Park, Amy Barker has created a simple and beautiful tapestry of lives lived in the shadow of the unthinkable violence of the Port Arthur Massacre. Set against the backdrop of the Tasman Peninsula’s raw and rugged natural beauty, and its tragic legacy, Paradise Earth recounts a series of separate but interconnecting stories that explore the vicissitudes and fragility of the human condition. The result is both lyrical and provocative.’

— Chris Nyst, Crook as Rookwood (winner Ned Kelly Crime Fiction Award 2009).

Praise for Paradise Earth

Serious literature honoured in serious times

Attention: Literary JournalistsFor Immediate Release, July 28, 2020

In a year marked by the collective trauma of Australia’s horrific bushfire season and the current Coronavirus pandemic, Paradise Earth by Amy Barker is honoured as a finalist in the literary fiction category of the 2020 International Book Awards.

Set across the beautiful and rugged coastline of Australia’s Tasman Peninsula, and approaching the 25th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, Paradise Earth’s uncontained wilderness propels its characters beyond a traumatic past towards a meaningful future.

An award-winning novelist, Barker plumbed Paradise Earth for over a decade returning time and again to an island’s struggle to find purpose in the wake of Australia’s worst post-colonial mass murder. Paradise Earth became an examination of how a community’s disconnection could outlast the effects of individual psychological trauma.

In a masterful study of survival and recovery in distressing times, such as those we are now facing, ‘Paradise Earth explores how people work through collective trauma, including the subsequent complexities of damaged relationships and routines that define life and communities for generations,’ Barker says.

‘The burden that our private and collective memory is called upon to bear, though already so heavy, must not be set down. To forget the Port Arthur massacre would be a travesty to all of those who died, were injured or directly affected.’

Barker is uniquely poised to write about the terrible events from Port Arthur 1996. While not at Port Arthur itself on the day of the massacre, she spent her formative years on Tasman Peninsula, in close association with both victims and members of the gunman’s family. Paradise Earth became a journey to find words that commemorate an unspeakable tragedy.

‘Being honoured as a finalist in the literary fiction category of the 2020 International Book Awards is important recognition for literature that explores serious and tragic topics. It’s important to explore life’s textures in the wake of Australia’s horrific bushfire season and the current Coronavirus pandemic,’ she concludes.

The International Book Awards honour excellence in independent and mainstream publishing. Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of American Book Fest, said the 2020 International Book Awards yielded over 2,000 entries. ‘The 2020 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the world.’ Earlier this year, Paradise Earth won Gold in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) for Best Regional Fiction - Australia/NZ/Pacific Rim.

*** Amy Barker is available for interviews. High resolution author shots, book cover artwork, and award seals are available on request.

Stormbird Press: defending nature and empowering communities through the power of story.

Author: Amy BarkerRelease date: April 28, 2020RRP: AU$29.99 (pbk), $9.99 (ebk)Territory: English language marketFormat: Paperback and eBookSize: 203 x 128 mmPages: 324ISBNs: 978-1-925856-22-4 (pbk) 978-1-925856-23-1 (ebk)

Amy Barker holds degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing. Her debut novel Omega Park won the 2008 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Best Emerging Author, was shortlisted for the 2010 FAW (Fellowship of Australian Writers) Christina Stead Award for fiction and was Winner of the 2012 IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Ena Noël Award. Paradise Earth, Amy’s second novel, won the 2013 DJ ‘Dinny’ O’Hearn Memorial Fellowship. Amy has undertaken residencies at the Australian Centre (UOM), Varuna, The Writers’ House, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Old Melbourne Gaol, which like Port Arthur, is a Pentonville model prison. Barker is uniquely poised to write about the terrible events from Port Arthur 1996. While not at Port Arthur itself on the day of the massacre, she spent her formative years on Tasman Peninsula, in close association with both victims and members of the gunman’s family. Barker and Stormbird Press hope that Paradise Earth helps find the words that commemorate this unspeakable tragedy.

Paradise Earth has been honoured as a Finalist in the Fiction: Literary category of the 2020 International Book Awards, and won Gold in the Australia/NZ/Pacific Rim Best Regional fiction category in the 2020 Independent Publisher Awards.

Author, Amy Barker

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‘Amy Barker reminds me of the young Dostoevsky ... a novel of blazing and humbling integrity.’

—Peter Bishop, writers’ advocate and formerly Creative Director of Varuna, the Writers’ House.

Media contact: Margi Prideaux +61 (0)476 109 875production@stormbirdpress.com

‘The aftershocks from 1996 continued, year after year, often in the life of the individual more devastating than the Port Arthur massacre itself. Yet always the subsequent tragedies could be traced back to that unspeakable Sunday.’ Coming home to Tasman Peninsula with her Northern Irish partner, Ruth journeys into her own psychic trauma as well as that projected onto the raw, monumental coast. When Ruth’s brother John helps his fourteen-year-old son apply for a firearm’s permit—almost two and a half decades after Port Arthur—they risk condemning those who do not remember the past to repeat it. A Port Arthur survivor, Marina has returned to the Peninsula with her brother Moon to pack up Doo-No-Harm, the family holiday home, after their mother’s death. Marina’s personhood was so violated by her early life experience that she has been left an angry she-wolf about to set out on the hunt. In a convoy of duck rescuers, the siblings head for a confrontation with shooters on the wetland. In these lives choreographed by trauma, damage and the ramifications of wilful forgetfulness, transformation can only occur after an extremely painful lesson.

‘A simple and beautiful tapestry of lives lived in the shadow of the unthinkable violence of the Port Arthur Massacre ... lyrical and provocative.’

—Chris Nyst, Cop This, Gone, Gettin’ Square,and Crook as Rookwood.