Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home

Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home

Australia is deep in the throes of expanding multiculturalism. While newspaper ink and pixels are spilled daily in an attempt to make sense of its complex tangle of issues, literary responses to Australian immigration are far rarer. Joyful Strains collects twenty-seven short memoirs from writers describing their lives after moving to Australia. These are stories about what they found, who they became and what they now think of Australia - stories that provide entertainment, perspective and cause to celebrate our increasingly diverse nation. This is an insightful, compelling and sometimes confronting collection for all Australians.


Authors: Alexis Wright, Arnold Zable, Dmetri Kakmi, Alice Pung, Maria Tumarkin, Michael Sala, Meg Mundell, Paola Totaro, Chi Vu, Malla Nunn, Amy Espeseth, Roanna Gonsalves, Michelle Aung Thin, Chris Flynn, Diane Armstrong, Ghassan Hage, Ouyang Yu Danny Katz, Mark Dapin, Deborah Carlyon, Adib Khan, Ali Alizadeh, Lily Yulianti Farid, Juan Garrido-Salgado, Catherine Rey, Shalini Akhil, Val Colic-Peisker, Hsu-Ming Teo and Samina Yasmeen

Editors Kent MacCarter and Ali Lemer are American expatriates from the USA.


Kent MacCarter is a Melbourne-based writer and editor, and the author of two poetry collections. Kent sits on the board of the Small Press Network and is active in Melbourne PEN. He is Managing Editor of Cordite Poetry Review. He came to Australia in 2004 from New York City.


Ali Lemer is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She has worked for travel-guide publisher Lonely Planet and is the author of three travel guidebooks. Ali has also had her work published in Meanjin and Eureka Street. She came to Australia in 2005 from Chicago.


Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home

Affirm Press
Editors: Kent MacCarter and Ali Lemer
ISBN: 9780987308535
Price: $24.95