AGENCY NEWS
AGENCY NEWS
May 2006
Michele Gierck’s first book, 700 Days in El Salvador, was published in May 2006 by Coretext. “Gierck is a traveller in the deepest and truest sense, one who knows how to be still. She was changed by her experiences and her readers will be too.” ~ Michael McGirr, author of Bypass.
Jenni Mitchell’s latest exhibition, Desert Sharing, is showing at the Barn Gallery, Montsalvat, Eltham, from Thursday 1st June to 3rd July 2006. A love of the desert has brought together two women from very different parts of the world. Togsoyun began painting her beloved Gobi desert while a world away Jenni Mitchell was discovering the wonders of the Flinders Ranges. A chance introduction has resulted in Togsoyun travelling to Australia to paint in the Flinders Ranges with Jenni. In this exhibition see their individual interpretations of the desert in painting and photography together with scupture by Mervyn Hannan.
Greg Pyers’ novel, Jack Brown and the Labyrinth of the Bats, is now out in all good book stores and is also available in a 3 CD set narrated by Brendan Higgins who brilliantly captures the mood of intrigue and suspense. It is the first in a new series about a boy with a special gift, the ability to see inside the minds of animals. Jack and his cousin Molly Hunter are never far from danger, whether from poachers in the African jungle, smugglers of Nazi gold in the Channel Islands or an evil man, who has sworn to track Jack down, no matter what! See the May edition of KZone which includes the first chapter. Greg was short listed in the 2005 Australian Children’s Book Council Awards non fiction category and his first novel, Doublecross, was published by ABC books in August 2005.
Allan Nixon is touring throughout Australia in 2006 as an ambassador for The Year of the Outback 2006.
See Gordon Reece’s new picture storybook Nog the Nag Bird which was published by Lothian on 1 May 2006, to follow up last year’s The Runaway Circus.
Wendy Orr’s Across the Dark Sea was launched by the National Museum of Australia in May, as part of a series of fiction books for young children, Making Tracks, inspired by objects from the Museum’s collection. The series was promoted in Sydney at The Children’s Book Council of Australia 8th National Conference and Expo and is supported by a web site at www.nma.gov.au/play that provides teachers with discussion questions, supporting activities and an activity that allows readers to interact with the Hong Hai, the boat in the Museum’s collection which provided Wendy with the inspiration for her story. Across the Dark Sea, beautifully illustrated by Donna Rawlins, features a fishing boat used to flee Vietnam after the War. It is the story of Trung and his father who escape attacking soldiers. But what awaits them across the dark sea? Too Much Stuff, a Penguin Nibble, and Mokie and Bik, published by Allen & Unwin, will be released later in 2006. Mokie and Bik will be published in the USA by Henry Holt in the northern Spring of 2007.
Alan Sunderland’s Refugee will be released in June 2006 as part of the My Australian Story series published by Scholastic Australia. On October 1st, the first of Alan’s new Octavius O’Malley Series, Octavius O’Malley and the Mystery of the Exploding Cheese will be published by Harper Collins Australia.
See Mark Svendsen’s latest book Circus Carnivore, illustrated by Ben Redlich, which was published in Australia by Lothian Books in 2005 and will be published in 2006 in the USA by Houghton Mifflin.
Janine Fraser will be a featured poet at the Mildura Writers’ Festival, Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 July 2006. See www.mwaf.com.au for details.
GOLVAN ARTS MANAGEMENT • PO Box 766, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia • golvan@ozemail.com.au