Books published by Ginninderra Press

Life Happens is Cynthia Hallam's eighth poetry collection with Ginninderra Press. Cynthia Sidney Hallam grew up in Lismore in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales. Her poems, short stories and articles have been published in magazines and anthologies. Her poems have been read on ABC radio and performed on stage. She now lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

'These poems are shaped by the mundane and the extraordinary, all in rhythmic patterns and music that form a chorus from the first to the last poem. Her poems are intimate observations and explorations of the common aspects of our lives, reflections on our ancestry, and on the power of the poetic voice to understand who we have been and who we are now. In these lucid poems, the reader will find the power that drives this dynamic poetic voice.' - Mary-Jane Grandinetti, Editor Shot Glass Journal and Fib Review

Flight can imply both to fly and to flee. The trajectories of these stories span a spectrum of abjection and desire encompassing despair and the transformative, as characters encounter each other, confront their demons and grapple with the circumstances of their lives.'In this collection, Jena Woodhouse explores the taunting allure of dreams of flight. In a diverse range of stories arranged in two parts, she delicately traverses the aspirations which everyone harbours, which can either transport or engulf. The twin worlds of water and sky therefore are hauntingly invoked as being symbolic of these polar opposites. Evocative literary references pepper a text which is also distinguished by the poet's sensibility, by an arresting insight into character, and by inventive shifts in narrative perspective. This is a richly nuanced collection from an accomplished writer of immense style and grace.' - Robyn Sheahan-Bright

Life is not a clean run. It is an exhilarating journey of imperfections, resulting in scrubbing grit from beneath broken fingernails and wading through mud before it cakes under tired feet. The territory is unforgiving, filled with contrasts in a world where the dirtiest lies streak through the darkest truths. This is fiction after all. Rolling in the Mud is a contemporary collection of edgy short stories, exploring the taboo we gloss over in modern-day society. Number one bestselling author Kelly Van Nelson brings her raw trademark style to this eclectic range of bite-sized literary tales, stripping back the layers of false expectations to reveal the human psyche and the stark reality of today.

It's not all beer, skittles and Dr Spock, this motherhood caper. Somewhere between the experts who theorise and the amateurs who practise is a wide deep gap. Experts have written a lot on how to raise children. In a free society, you pay your money and take your pick. Starting from the Good Book (the original spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child advocate) to the very latest volumes out on toddler taming, child psychology and emotional problems (the child's, not yours). One of the interesting side effects completely ignored by experts is how raising children lowers mothers - right down. They are reduced to tears, tea and aspirin, hysterics, sherry, cigarettes, blunt instruments, bullying and blackmail. Some of the more fortunate are driven to sympathetic psychiatrists and rest homes. All this keeps the rest home industry healthy, ups the sales of something to fortify and simultaneously drown your problems in at supermarkets and liquor stores, and gives the experts on outer suburban neuroses plenty of material. Life with children is composed of confrontations, truces, compromises and intermittent battles. Suitable textbooks on survival of child raising might well include guerrilla warfare, unarmed combat and, of course, communications - handy for negotiating terms for truces, compromises, moratoriums, rescues of badly wounded psyches, egos and compensation payments when in the wrong (which is always). In the no-man's-land of the outer suburban battlefields, this motherhood caper keeps going on (when will they ever learn?) and so do the battles. And unfortunately we don't win 'em all.

William 'Bill' Mott came from generations of farmers/graziers who never wanted anything else but to own their own land. Hard work, family and the sense of community were pitted against the harsh reality of this ancient land and its climate of drought and flooding rain. Overseas wars had taken many of their own, but they had to believe it was for the greater good, for the safety of the land they worked and the preservation of a history and culture they held dear. But then rural Australia was hit by a tsunami of institutional dishonesty, greed and corruption, poor bureaucratic legislation, and conflicted and complicit governments. Bill Mott had trusted his bank and lost everything: his land, his home, his livelihood, his future, his children's inheritance and his marriage. But giving up was not in Bill Mott's DNA. Australians were unaware of how much Australian-owned agriculture had been lost; how many farming families and their communities had perished; and how Australia's food and water security was endangered. For Bill Mott, it was a seven-year battle before he beat the bank, but the fight was about more than that; because 'the Bureaucracy, Bankers and Bastards' should never be allowed to win.

"A second gratifying collection of poems from Decima Wraxall. Flame is an odyssey of diverse themes from nature, history, anxiety, loss, love, transcendence. Always a liminal struggle from the certainty of 'staircase houses and hedges clipped into obedience' to being on the thresholds 'lit by firefly light', 'gardens taking golden sun baths before dark', 'a miracle clasped in loving arms', 'the surge of one melds with ripples of the other', I am reminded of Kahlil Gibran's words: 'the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears'. Delight in poems that speak to the paradox of dreams, courage, and spirituality, a cornucopia of the poetic emotional spectrum. Enjoy the marvels of the natural world, the honesty of family and the joys and trials of international travel." - Colleen Keating

Harvesting Clouds is the debut anthology from Canberra's Tram Stop Poets, a circle of both emerging and well-known regional writers. The variety and quality of verse within these pages reflect the group's diversity, love of craft, wit, perception and deep feeling for people and environment. Here is a potpourri of free verse, traditional pieces, Japanese forms, ekphrastic, experimental and shaped poems to engage, challenge and entertain. All the poets delight in playing with imaginative ideas and pursuing that dream of harvesting clouds. Welcome aboard!

Swords and Kisses is the story of two young friends who battle to manage two very different obsessions that threaten to change the course of their lives. Both encounter highs and lows as they attempt to resolve their challenges, which they do in very different ways. It is also a story about friendship and empathy that is told with an economy of prose, and an insight into the human condition.