Nuclear family

Everyone is fascinated by families. First we are landed in one, then most of us seek out or create yet another one, sometimes more. The success or failure of families is endless, as the contributors to this year’s Sleepers Almanac demonstrate. This is the third Almanac from Sleepers Publishing, whose championing of short fiction and emerging writers has resulted in an impressive collection of forty-one pieces. Elizabeth Roberts’s story ‘Lucky Stars {In which the narrator recounts the disintegration of her family, in nine parts.}’ opens the collection, and is a fine example of an intelligent, well-constructed narrative. Roberts’s expansive vocabulary and tight command of the narrative mark her as a talent to watch. Her opening line is one students in Creative Writing classes all around the country would covet: ‘In my last year of school my fathers business went under, folding in and in on itself like origami.’ The 2007 Almanac also includes established writers: Shalini Akhil, Tony Birch, Eric Dando, Kate Holden, Craig Silvey, but more often it is the newer writers who impress. Rachael Guys’ ‘Eulogy’, written from the unusual second-person perspective and documented with photographs, is charming and poignant. In ‘Running Total’, Bill Collopy, a prizewinner in the 2006 Age Short Story Competition, cleverly musters empathy for a character who is not particularly likeable and certainly not lawful. Through tight dialogue and minimal action, Collopy evokes the narrator’s contradictions and leaves the reader on an uneasy note. Karen Hitchcock has two stories in the collection, both of which deal with relationships between a brother and sister. The minute detail draws the reader into a web of familial history, comfort and discomfort. In ‘The Poetics of Space’, a brother crashes his sister’s self-imposed retreat at a rural shack. Her intention to write her honours thesis slowly unravels as they fall into an uneasy routine and an alliance that defies their differences. The varying length of the stories in this collection is refreshing. Andy Kissane’s piece ‘In My Arms’, at fifteen pages, is one of the longer in the collection, and is a mesmerising tale of the undulations of both romantic and paternal love. On the other hand, twenty-year-old Alli Barnard has written a striking one-page character portrait, simply titled ‘Her’. Emmett Stinson’s story, ‘Great Extinctions in History’, is the longest in the Almanac, at more than ten thousand words. Louise Swinn’s editorial states: ‘Sometimes the wrong people have the loudest voices. Our response is to give fresh white pages to new writers and to people who are trying something a bit different.’ The Sleepers Almanac is a bit different. It is interspersed with artwork by John Ryrie, who is also responsible for the beautifully intricate but somewhat ominous front cover. There are some editorial intrusions, too: nine pages interspersed throughout the work including lists: ‘Words That Say You’re Leaving’, ‘Blockbusters In History’ and invitations to the reader’s creative side. These include space for readers to record their thoughts in categories such as ‘Reunions You Wish You Were Invited To’ and ‘Songs That Changed Your Life (And How)’. For readers expecting a conventional anthology, or who believe that editors should be invisible, these features may irritate, but those readers familiar with the digital culture and technology will enjoy this interactive element. The editors are not afraid to demonstrate their personalities and irreverent senses of humour, particularly in the double-page spread ‘Not Without My Data’. In addition to including the usual information about printing and font, they have made their own lists under headings such as ‘Words We’ve Loved This Year’ and ‘We Know What We Read Last Summer’. There is even a set of tongue-in-cheek ‘Discussion Points’ no doubt emanating from the recent patronising trend of publishers to include bookclub questions at the end. It is difficult to separate The Sleepers Almanac 2007: The Family Affair from the overall Sleepers phenomenon, which includes a website, mailing list and regular Salons, described on their website as opportunities for diverse members of Australia’s literary community to come together for entertainment, networking and knowledge sharing. With the success of Sleepers Publishing, the small press had the task of whittling down approximately one thousand submissions for the 2007 Almanac. While Sleepers has firmly established itself as a publisher, much work remains to be done in the marketplace. Three major chain bookstores I visited only had listings for the Almanac as a special order, and one independent bookshop seemed confused as to where to shelve it, eventually placing it in the magazine and journal section, competing with popular magazines and established literary journals. As an annual, demonstrating the strength and diversity of short fiction in this country, The Sleepers Almanac belongs firmly in the heart of the Australian fiction section.

Annie Condon

From the New Issue

A Memoir of My Former Self: A life in writing by Hilary Mantel, edited by Nicholas Pearson

Poet of the Month with David Brooks

No Church in the Wild by Murray Middleton

‘Portrait of a friendship: In memoriam Katerina Clark (20 June 1941–1 February 2024)’ by Sheila Fitzpatrick

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