Latitudes — Susan Johnson (1)

David Malouf and Thea Astley, along with other well-known fiction writers including Thomas Shapcott, Janette Turner Hospital and Gerard Lee, have contributed to this exciting collection of new writing from the north. Their vigorous voices combine with fresh new ones to reveal an emotional and imaginative life as lush and diverse as the physical landscape.

The styles vary from the realist to the fabulist, from the delicate and evocative to the raw and energetic. Among the new writers Carmell Killin, with her exceptional ear for the vernacular of central Queensland, and Matthew Condon with his gift for subtle character development. Philip Neilson writes with the precision of a poet, and Anne Statham offers disturbing visions of the low life. The stories were chosen by Susan Johnson and Mary Roberts from more than six hundred submissions.