eBook Listing

In these collected writings - essays, articles, letters - Michael Kelly invites us into an intimate exploration of the inner wisdom and radical challenge of Christianity. In reflections that take us from the fields of Nicaragua to the 'War on Terror', from the joy of erotic pleasure to the challenge of rebuilding the church, Kelly gives voice to a spirituality of desire, grounded in justice and love.

Signs of a Struggle illustrates the creative journey, from working-class North East England to the current Queer-art scene of Sydney, through the eyes of award-winning artist Guy James Whitworth.

 

Uniquely using the fierce and fabulous LGBTIQ community of Sydney as a visual metaphor, Whitworth contemplates life's challenges and triumphs. With dramatic backdrops including a troubled childhood, 80s London in the midst of the AIDS crisis, and activism for global transformation in the modern world, Signs of a Struggle takes the reader on an intimate, raucous and also poignant journey through survival, queerdom, creativity and inspiration unlike any other.

A collection of essays, reflections and personal stories from 'enthusiasts, acceptors, sceptics and hesitants' showing the passion and depth around the issue of same-sex marriage.

Over thirty writers, a mix of activist and reflective voices, explore the legacy of the 2004 changes to the Australian Marriage Act, which now states - and which must be stated at every wedding - 'marriage is between a man and a woman'.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Dennis Altman AM, Barbara Baird, Andrew Barr and Anthony Toms, Michael Carden, Rodney Croome AM, Elaine Crump, Sharon Dane, Michelle Dicinoski, Luke Gahan, Evelyn Gray, Ryan Heath, Lynne Hillier and Tiffany Jones, Crusader Hillis, Walter Jennings, Michael Kirby, Benjamin Law, Victor Marsh, Rev. Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Paul Martin, Alyena Mohummadally and Catherine Roberts, Chris Morgan, Wayne Morgan, Rev. Nathan Nettleton, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Kerryn Phelps AM, Damien Riggs, Donald Ritchie, Wendell Rosevear OAM, Lulu Shapiro and Jannine Lockyer, Adiva Sifris and Paula Gerber, Peter Tatchell, Yantra de Vilder, Zenith Virago, Deb Wain, Kees Waaldijk, Tim Wilson, Tim Wright

The Bannerman Shortlist has been announced.

Six authors. Six stories.

And Gideon Bannerman is missing.

 

‘Colin Batrouney’s new novel is unexpected and alluring. Balancing out satire which hits home with feelings which run deep is something only truly accomplished writers can achieve – and he does.’ - DAVID HARE

 

‘A wicked invention that is very, very funny.’ - DAVID MARR

 

‘Batrouney’s new novel is an exquisite joy, one of the most pleasurable books I have read in ages. The joy is in the elegance and assurance of the writing, in the sophistication and wit of the satire, and in the richly imagined characters and narrative. What a pure delight! I wanted to stay within its pages for the longest time.’ - CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS

 

‘The Bannerman Shortlist is a beauty. It’s clever, original and compelling. It’s the best contemporary novel I’ve read for quite some time.’ - ANDREA GOLDSMITH

 

Perth in the 1950s. After being caught wearing his mother's yellow dress, young Victor had to hide any tendency towards gender inappropriate behaviour. But his interest in dancing and theatre (and mooning over Rudolph Nureyev on the telly) were bound to make the facade collapse at some point. Emerging sexuality and the sense of not being 'at home' in his body, let alone the world, ran alongside a search for meaning that brought him eventually to a spiritual awakening under the young guru Maharaji...

Part family tragedy, part existential comedy, The Boy in the Yellow Dress is a warts-and-all account of exile and the subsequent journey homewards that is less about finding a respectable place in the world than an intimate connection with the ultimate source of being.

Amanda Lohrey (2012 Patrick White Award Winner)

In 1994, Michael Bernard Kelly recorded six video lectures for the Erospirit Research Institute. The Erotic Contemplative charted a spirituality for gay and lesbian Christians grounded in the contemplative, mystical traditions of the church. Dr Joseph Kramer, who commissioned the lectures, writes: "His powerful words ... seemed to come straight from his heart and right into mine. I told Michael that he was offering transformative guidance, like Joseph Campbell did in his Hero's Journey. 'You have described the Mystic's Journey for Gay and Lesbian Christians.' "
The lectures, originally released in 1995, were digitised and re-released in 2020. Now this transcription of all the lectures is published for the first time, and includes a study guide to the series prepared by Michael Kelly.
"The Erotic Contemplative" is the most powerful and insightful study of Gay Spirituality that I know of. I have watched 'The Road from Emmaus' lecture three times, and still find new riches!" - John J. McNeill, PhD. Author of The Church and the Homosexual.

On a cloudless afternoon, a man dives into a crowded swimming pool and disappears. Is it murder, a staged disappearance or alien abduction?

The Shallow End - a steady freestyle commentary on sex, celebrity and suntanning.

The Shallow End was shortlisted in the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

On a cloudless afternoon, a man dives into a crowded swimming pool and disappears. Is it murder, a staged disappearance or alien abduction?

The Shallow End - a steady freestyle commentary on sex, celebrity and suntanning.

The Shallow End was shortlisted in the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Walter Kovak - insurance worker, early forties, unhappily married, no children, memorably invisible - is the sole survivor of a devastating suburban train crash. But Walter has no memory of the tragedy.

One year on he starts to receive mysterious random warnings from strangers - warnings that could again save his life. And his memory of the fateful day begins to return.

Ashley Sievwright lives, works and writes in Melbourne. His first novel, The Shallow End, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book in 2009.

Reviews of The Shallow End:

'... an impressively fresh voice in Australian fiction... The Shallow End is a little gem of a novel and deserves to be widely read.' - The Canberra Times

'Both witty and easy to read... filled with moments of droll sagacity... evocative prose and cynical humour are Sievwright's strengths...' - Australian Book Review