Publishing

In the context of the now more-or-less complete collapse of the New Left, the pulp novels of the fifties and early sixties deserve reconsideration, since, in some ways, contemporary pop culture today occupies a similar space, in that it’s produced almost entirely by commercial businesses with no relationship to any real social struggle.

It is easy to think of writers pursuing their aims with a noble persistence, despite the fact that they will only have a few readers, and little support along the way – but it would be truer to see the experience of isolation as constitutive of their writing, as a formative influence, rather than as an impediment to it.

Middle Eastern writers occupy a particularly jeopardised position on the peripheries of this imaginary, where to exist as a writer presupposes inventing palatable difference in ways that make readers feel special and accepting.

What some might call selling out may actually be art listening, responding, and adapting to dynamic changes in the environment in which it is produced.

‘I think it is important for women of colour to know that we are not objects or tokens to be used and dispensed.’

‘The problem is that western Sydney is a place but it’s also an idea.’

‘Given my ambivalent relationship to literary journals, why on earth would I want to start one?’

‘When we began the research there was no ready answer to the most basic question — which Australian books had been published in the USA? — let alone when and how and with what effect.’

‘One way the history of a publishing house can be told is through the readers of the books that a publisher produces.’

‘I’d like to engage in some offensive provincialism, examining different borders, the literary tick gates, and ask if anything exists beyond Sydney or Melbourne.’