Books published by Spinifex Press

Not since Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton has anyone written so candidly about madness. Sandy Jeffs' poetry has a stark dignity, capable of conveying "e;shudders of intense fear"e;. Yet in the midst of her rigours, she can access a voice both wild and funny. Sandy Jeffs' leavening sense of humour peoples her darkness with the sirens of the supermarket, a tinsel paradise and high-tech technicolour Armageddon. After all, God is only a word and angels, although mad, sing the wanderer into paradise.

A poignant history of the women and succeeding generations who established the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. Felicity Jack writes of the achievements and generosity of the many people who have contributed so much to make the hospital a success.

She lies in the bed and she is sick. Sicker than she's ever been. But with the sickness comes a pain and in that pain she finds a glory. And its the glory that gets her through. When her body heals and she is out of hospital and home with her family, she needs to seek out a new glory, a stronger glory. She finds it in starvation. A story of one girl's struggle with herself, her life and her family. And the story of a family's struggle with a daughter/sister they can never hope to understand.

A moving journey through the experience of breast cancer, including the different approaches and treatments.

This is a book for anyone who has ever shopped, or worked in shops. But whether you find yourself wincing or laughing could depend on which side of the shop counter you're on at the time. Find out what it's like to be a young shopgirl, vent your frustrations with today's supermarket society and the advertising and media industries, take a nostalgic trip back to the days of the corner shop. Using consumerism as a platform, Two Lips Went Shopping follows the thread down laneways where the baby trade and Female Genital Mutilation flourish passing protests of women against war and violence.

Circus as drama and risk, as exuberance and irrepressible spirit, is the central metaphor Patricia Sykes uses to open a world where public and private share the same tightrope. The poems speak of women searching for footholds along the spectrums of politics, power, history, culture and relationships. Theirs are performances of celebration and hope as they wire dance through circumcision and incest, madness and suicide, genocide and war. There is passion and resistance, hot comedy and fire in the belly. Falling is the first victory, balance is the ultimate skill.

Birds don't fly with leads, says thirteen-year-old Avis when confronted by the limitations imposed on her at school. She has epilepsy and some of the teachers want to stop her participating in the sport she loves most. Susan Hawthorne captures the voice and longings of a child at the edge of self-realisation.This collection draws on the experience of epilepsy mixed with imagination, mythic consciousness and an intense realisation of life.

Every retelling of a myth is a reworking of it. Every hearing or reading of a myth is a recreation of it. It is only when we engage with a myth that it resonates, becomes charged and recharged with meaning. And so it is in Building Babel, a book that re-engages with myth through the cyberworld, where worlds intersect and are transformed. Exploratory and experimental, Suniti Namjoshi's work is studied around the world for its transformative creations.

The geek-girl's bible. Ever wanted to take a magic carpet ride around the world? A step-by-step guide to the Internet.

Indigenous women from across the Pacific - Hawai'i, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Marianas, Guam, Belau, Fiji, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Te Ao Maohi/Tahiti Polynesia - have a voice in this book. For most of the world, the tiny island nations of the Pacific are barely known, but the events that have taken place in those nations during the twentieth century have global consequences. Without understanding that history, the world will be doomed to repeat those mistakes.

What happens when an Australian feminist falls in love with an Irish monk? Robyn Rowland travelled to Ireland hoping to delve into her family's history. She circles the country, driving its roads in search of something more. What she finds is risk, uncertainty, clarity and turbulence. Is this love wasted, dry and juiceless? Or is the tearing what love should be all about? In poems that soar and wreck themselves at the base of cliffs, Robyn Rowland takes us into a raw and exultant world.

In the tradition of "Thelma and Louise", Melissa Chan's second book is a collection of humorous short stories that revolve around the theme of women's revenge.

Julie's youthful concerns are swept aside by a tragedy that splits her family. She and her brother Toby must begin a new life in Sydney, a city that is sometimes exciting, often overwhelming, and always different to the home she knew. This is the sequel to acclaimed I Started Crying Monday.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is based on the relationship between mind, body and emotions. Chinese Medicine for Women takes a common-sense approach to women's health based on these principles. A practitioner of shiatsu therapy, acupuncturist and TCM herbalist, Bronwyn Whitlocke outlines the practices and applications for women's health, including stress, diet and lifestyle. There are chapters on menstruation, pregnancy, menopause and infertility, as well as on migraines, colds, obesity and depression. Bronwyn Whitlocke is also the author of Shiatsu Therapy for Pregnancy.

When Margot Gorman finds a body in the women's toilets a tangle of mysteries opens up. Margot Gorman, ex-cop, is now a free agent, a triathlete and has the equivalent of perfect pitch in the sense of smell and, naturally, is a connoisseur of good wine. From murder and kidnap, drug dealing and gay bashing, to illegal mining and an underground network of cyberfeminists - the Solanacites - there are many skeins to be unravelled. A complex and intriguing novel that deals with the selfhood of women, it ranges from musings on the Amazons to a self-sufficient community in Australia's womenslands. There is mystery and philosophical enquiry in money, madness, motherhood and much more.

The story of the jugglers, acrobats, tricksters, aerialists, technicians, administrators, musicians, designers, and trainers involved in a community theatre project that was created to work with survivors of sexual assault and performed at the World Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995.

This is a selection of writings by women from Ireland, Australia, England, Canada (and other countries) compiled and edited by Irish-Australian poet, Lizz Murphy. A moving and often amusing collection of fiction, poetry, and autobiography by top-selling and award-winning writers. There is a wildness and daring in these voices. They call up the legions out of the sea and set fires alight. They hang out over garden fences, move restlessly, are beaming, weeping, powerful.

''Travelling Alone Together'': It is 1993 and a group of elderly women are travelling the same route as the explorer Edward John Eyre on his 1840-41 expedition from Adelaide to Albany. Miriel Lenore uses this as the framework for her own explanations of the effects of gender, race, and generation on the individual and society. ''Ruby Camp'': Crisp creates a radically new way of ''knowing'' the East Gippsland bush. Her poetry evokes the Snowy River and it''s environs from a woman''s perspective, as well as the memory the land holds of the massacres of the indigenous Krauatungalung, Ngarigo and Bidwell people.