When the winners of the Griffith Review’s Novella Project III were announced recently it dawned on me I’d forgotten to review The Novella Project II. Doh! I don’t know how it slipped off my list. Here’s a taster to entice you online to purchase Forgotten Stories: The Novella Project II. You should also mark your diaries to check out Tall Tales Short – The Novella Project III when it hits the streets in November.
What are we talking about here?
Five diverse novellas that delve into Australia’s past to explore some of its trickier nuggets through fiction. Cate Kennedy’s Former Glory, John Kinsella’s Refuge, Emma Hardman’s 1919, Masako Fukui’s When Blossoms Fall and Megan McGrath’s Whale Station all make forays into under-explored and interesting territory and are worth a closer look.
What’s a quote from each novella that hints at their theme and style?
‘They’re pigtails of human hair,’ said Jean, ‘hacked off the heads of Chinese gold diggers. People used them as switches for horsewhips, or just kept them. Like scalps. Something to boast about.’– Former Glory
Goleem Mahomed stopped the camels again, took water from a skin and washed himself, spread his rug and prayed. Then they ate in the shade of the camels.
‘Our camels are taxed. Why aren’t the white carriers’ animals taxed. It’s discrimination.’
‘Yes it is. It is meant to be discrimination. You are not to be part of the future of Australia.’ – Refuge
The smell in the house was solid in its horror. Was this the smell that was in David’s nose when he died at the Somme? A smell of things that should stay hidden, of things that are not meant to touch the air. A smell that could surely kill. It was the smell of sickness and death, of blood and fluids, things I knew nothing of. Bodies and filth. – 1919
My father, now dead, was a kamikaze trainee, and he never spoke about it … My mother, on the other hand, spoke a lot about her experience of the war, which was mostly about starvation. She became a fabulous cook and cooking teacher. She has four fridges … She has a huge carbon footprint as a result of her fear of not having enough, or so she says. – When Blossoms Fall
The shutdown had thrown me back to shore too soon. I wasn’t done with the work, or with the season, and I wasn’t ready to face Camilla, even though every cell in my body missed her … Home for the three of us was a small shack at Claytons, below the headland from the hotel, right on Cylinder Beach. – Whale Station
What gems appealed most and why?
McGrath’s work was new to me and I found her novella Whale Station and its floundering protagonist Rick both moving and illuminating. I’ve always loved Kennedy’s short fiction and her novella Former Glory was grisly, captivating, funny and had some crack-a-jack characters—especially the ghastly Cherie Prentice. This is a rollicking tale with a delightful ending making it ripe for a sequel. How about it Cate?
What else do you want to say about Novella Project II?
Hats off to the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund for funding this great issue of the Griffith Review and The Novella Project III. I was also pleased to read that print and digital editions and eSingles of the individual novellas in The Novella Project II are available at Griffith Review’s online store.
What about the winners in 2015?
This year’s five winners share in a prize pool of $25,000 and will be published in Griffith Review 50: Tall Tales Short – The Novella Project III in November 2015.
They are: Catherine McKinnon, Will Martin; Nick Earls, Cargoes; Madeleine Watts, Afraid of Waking It; Helen Gildfind, Quarry; and Tony Davis, The Flight.
Aviva Tuffield (Black Inc., the Stella Prize) will co-edit the edition with Griffith Review editor Julianne Schultz.
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