by Carmel Bird
Dear Writer
(1988, Random House, revised and expanded edition 1996, ISBN 0091833973 another edition in 2004)
A series of letters to a woman who is learning to write fiction, and now a classic fiction writing guide. Includes practical advice on everything the novice writer needs to know—from where ideas come from to submitting a finished manuscript.
‘Dear Writer—God, I love it!’ Mem Fox
‘There are a number of good reasons to buy and read this book, not only if you’re an aspiring writer but also if you’re a student of literature, or anyone who loves to read about writing’—Kerryn Goldsworthy, Australian Book Review
The Bluebird Café
(First published by McPhee Gribble, 1990, US edition from New Directions, 1991, ISBN 081121155X)
‘A down-under Vonnegut’
Californian Review
A small girl of mixed race disappears overnight from her home in a remote Tasmanian copper-mining town. When big business later builds a facsimile of the town, and places it beneath an enormous glass dome, the search for the child is reawakened. Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
‘…written with the precision of a Nabokov.’ Kirkus Reviews
‘A down-under Vonnegut.’ Californian Review
The White Garden
(UQP, 1995, ISBN 0702228214)
A compelling portrait of a man whose lust for power is expressed in his treatment of psychiatric patients. Seven women die in deep sleep therapy; the doctor rapes his patients in the Sleeping Beauty Ward. The sister of one of the doctor’s victims becomes his nemesis…Shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Award.
‘Carmel Bird’s latest novel is a pleasure…a clever, wise and humane triumph.’ Michael Sharkey, The Australian
‘a splendid, plangent, and memorable achievement, and a permanent contribution to Australian literature.’ Nicholas Birns, Antipodes
Crisis
(1996, republished by Arrow in 1999, ISBN 0091840384)
A comic novel. His wife leaves him for a man who makes grass overcoats. He yearns for the girl in the lingerie shop. He finds diversion in babes and booze, and inspiration in the lives of cast-off husbands…
‘a rollicking yarn of middle-class low life’ Frank Hardy
Red Shoes
(Random House, 1998, ISBN 0091834015)
An angel is assigned as guardian to an evil woman who leads a millennial cult of which the foundation is baby girls stolen from their mothers. The angel must continually examine his own moral position as he hovers beside the woman and observes childstealing, violence, rape and murder committed in the name of religion. And the angel’s voice is one of cool, seductive clarity.
‘Original, imaginative and thoughtful.’ Stephanie Dale, The Weekend Magazine
‘A horribly fascinating story…worthy of the Brothers Grimm at their grimmest.’ Ann Skea, Australian Book Review
The Stolen Children: Their Stories, edited by Carmel Bird
(Random House Australia, 1998, ISBN 0091836891)
Based on Bringing Them Home, the Report on the stolen children which was published by The Human Rights and Equal Employment Opportunities, these are the deeply moving and compelling actual stories told in the Report by the stolen generations of their experiences.
Unholy Writ
(HarperCollins, 2000, ISBN 0732267471)
Brooke Anderson never had a chance to finish her novel. The brutally murdered Brooke was just one of Quill’s lovers—that’s William Quinlan, Director of the College of Creative and Professional Writing. He’s married to Juliana, former student at the College. Juliana knows what happened (or so she says) but who really killed Brooke? Courteney Frome, girl journalist, is out of her depth with this cast of slightly mad, if glamorous murder suspects. Will the beautiful Courtney join the list of mutilated corpses? Shortlisted for the 2000 Ned Kelly Awards.
The Penguin Century of Australian Stories, edited by Carmel Bird
(Penguin, 2000, ISBN 0140284672)
This landmark collection brings together the best Australian short stories written in the twentieth century.
‘It’s a treat…Buying this book is a kind of investment in Australian culture. It’s a book you’ll dip into and come back to time and time again throughout your life.’ Sian Pryor, ABC Radio National
Open for Inspection
(HarperCollins, 2002, ISBN 0732269903)
Lizzie Candy lies in the luxurious spa of her luxurious home. She is 32, she is gorgeous, she is dead. Set in the world of expansive bay views and renovator’s delights that is the real estate market, this is the second crime novel featuring journalist Courtney Frome.
‘It is serious, and it is satire; it is black and it is very funny…[Bird] offers the edginess and unexpectedness of a novel of our times, set in the present moment.’ Marion Halligan, Canberra Times
Find out more
ON THE WEB
www.carmelbird.com
The author’s website, with extracts from her previous work, reviews and biographical information, and copies of her regular column on writing.
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozlit/
A database and resource for anyone interested in Australian writing and writers
www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm
One of the many sites dedicated to the Brothers Grimm, this one includes audio files of the 1914 translations of their stories.
www.csj.org
The website of the American Family Foundation, a major independent US group on cult awareness and counselling, which contains resources about psychological manipulation, cult groups, sects, and new religious movements.
READ
Nursery and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm
VISIT
Tasmania
see www.discovertasmania.com.au Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery www.qvmag.tas.gov.au.
Acknowledgments
Author’s thanks for kindness, support, inspiration, information, translation, conversation and music to:
Dr Susan Ballyn, Camilla Bird, Dr Sally Burgess, Fran Bryson, Elvira Cabballero, Matthew Condon, Dr Alan Crosier, Jane Edwards, Dr Sarah Ferber, Dr Timothy Flanagan, Linda Funnell, Dr Michael H. Glantz, Peter Goding, Ian Hamilton, Joan Hammonds, Philip Harvey, Rosaleen Love, Michael McGirr, Marshall McGuire, Hilary McPhee, Dinny O’Hearn, John O’Meara, Jan Owen, Sharon Peoples, Dr Gregory Power, Dr Cassandra Pybus, Vanessa Radnidge, Lisa Roberts, Dr Gerardo Rodriguez Salas, Dr Des Roman, Meredith Rose, Professor Daniel H. Sandweiss, Peter and Jane Walford, Dr Brenda Walker, Dr Shirley Walker, Dr John Wormuth.
About the Author
Carmel Bird is one of the most exciting and original writers in Australia today. With the publication of Cape Grimm, her first literary novel since the Miles Franklin-shortlisted Red Shoes was published in 1998, she again confirms her place as one of our foremost writers.
Carmel is fascinated by the power of memory and the capacity of mundane scenes, incidents and sensations to trigger it into life. She loves the truth-telling power of fiction and its ability to mine and represent the past perhaps more effectively than the single-minded pursuit of documentary fact. As she has commented in an article titled ‘Fact or Fiction’: ‘Life is a crude inventor; fiction will only be convincing if it is more artful than life.’ She has also described herself as ‘interested in the play between fact and fiction, interested in the moment when the metamorphosis takes place, when the grub of fact becomes the butterfly of fiction’.
Her previous novels include Red Shoes, The White Garden and The Bluebird Café, all of which were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Carmel has also published several volumes of short stories and two guides to writing fiction: Dear Writer and Not Now, Jack – I’m Writing a Novel. She has edited several anthologies including The Penguin Century of Australian Stories and The Stolen Children—Their Stories. A selection of her short fiction, The Essential Bird, will be published by Fourth Estate in 2005.
Visit www.AuthorTracker
.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Other Books By Carmel Bird
Open for Inspection
Red Shoes
The White Garden
Unholy Writ
Crisis
The Bluebird Café
Cherry Ripe
The Common Rat
Woodpecker Point
Automatic Teller
Births, Deaths & Marriages
Dear Writer
Not Now, Jack—I’m Writing a Novel
Daughters and Fathers
The Stolen Children—Their Stories
The Penguin Century of Australian Stories
Red Hot Notes
The Mouth
Cassowary’s Quiz
Copyright
Harper Perennial
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2004
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Pty Limited
ABN 36 0009 913 517
A member of the HarperCollinsPublishers (Australia) Pty Limited Group
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Carmel Bird 2004
Copyright © HarperCollins PS material prepared by Annabel Blay
The right of Carmel Bird to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Bird, Camel.
Cape Grimm.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 6993 8 (pbk.).
ISBN: 978-0-730-49112-5 (ePub)
1. Religious communities – Tasmania – Fiction.
2. Mass murder – Fiction. I. Title.
A823.3
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