Some initiatives are underway to honour and celebrate the personal impact that Michael Bernard Kelly had in the lives of many, and to preserve and advance his work in the areas of spirituality, sexuality and activism.

The first is a Call for Papers. If Michael had an impact on your life and thought; or if you think his work is significant within broader spiritual or theological or justice-based discourses, Clouds of Magellan Press in association with the family and friends of Michael invite you to submit an abstract for a collection of essays to be published later this year by Clouds of Magellan.

The second is an invitation to contribute to an Archive and Repository of Michael’s life and work.

For further information, please contact cloudsofmagellanpress@gmail.com

Garry Kinnane’s ‘Shadowed Days’ memoir trilogy is now issued in a single volume.  Garry is the author of George Johnston: A Biography (winner of The Age Book-of-the-Year 1986) and Colin Colahan: A Portrait. Shadowed Days was shortlisted for the 2009 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for non-fiction.

SHADOWED DAYS
Shadowed Days glows with humanity, with an understanding and wisdom born of privation and endurance. Tom Petsinis

FARE THEE WELL, HODDLE GRID
… this wise and melancholy book mingles exhilaration and elegy … The Australian
… [a] quietly moving tale of a working class boy’s search for love and life beyond the confines of the world he grew up in. Sydney Morning Herald

TIME OF ARRIVAL
… a meditation about travel as a defining part of living: be it living in the Cretan port of Chania, mixing with the local and ex-pat community and learning about writing, or moving to England, going to Oxford and being taught literature along the way. [Kinnane’s] description of time with William Empson or attending the lectures of E.P. Thompson are vivid and memorable. Sydney Morning Herald

We are saddened to learn of the death of our friend Michael Bernard Kelly on 14 November. Michael’s life, faith and writing were an inspiration to many. We send love to his family and friends.

On this page, find links to Michael’s writing and talks.

Bait & Switch and Other Stories by Ashley Sievwright is now available as a digital audiobook. Find it on Booktopia or other platforms where you buy audiobooks.

From teenage memories of staying with a cross-dressing cousin in Sydney, to estranged siblings scattering the ashes of a family member, not to mention perplexing encounters in Jordan, the eight stories in Bait & Switch reflect on family, friendship, desire and belonging in a queer world.

Listen now to one of the stories – Elephant – free on Soundcloud. [adult content]

Bait & Switch is now available from Hares & Hyenas Bookshop, as well as copies of Ashley Sievwright’s The Shallow End – the classic gay text on swimming pools, suntanning, sex, and strange disappearances.

Bent Street 4.1—Love from a Distance has just been released. This midyear edition shines a light on the role of technologies in shaping human intimacy within the broader frame of COVID-19 and lockdown.

Writers, academics, artists and poets reflect on the role that technologies, old and new, play in mediating human intimacy and shaping queer culture.

Bent Street 4.1  is edited by Jennifer Power, Henry von Doussa, and Timothy W. Jones. This issue is supported by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University and  La Trobe University Transforming Human Societies and forms part of a range of explorations into the issue, including a webinar that was held in mid-July.

ISBN: (paperback) 978-0-6487469-3-5 | RRP AUS $26.95 | 192pp, colour

ISBN: (ebook) 978-0-6487469-4-2

Availability

Bent Street 4.1 is available from The Bookshop Darlinghurst, (others to be listed soon) and can be ordered from the usual online book platforms. Bookshops and Libraries can order through Lightning Source.

Lockdown has impacted on the release of Bait and Switch & Other Stories by Ashley Sievwright. We thought the skies were clearing with the possibility of a socially distanced event in July, but then lockdown was re-imposed. Author and publisher met on the evening before lockdown restrictions came into effect to have a two-person celebration. Here is Ashley signing copies of his book. Short speeches were given.

Because we have had to find alternative ways of ‘releasing’ the book, Ashley has recorded all eight stories as an audio book – links will appear on this site soon.

Ashley Sievwright’s Bait and Switch & Other Stories is filtering out – Lockdown notwithstanding.

Graeme Aitken’s review has just appeared in DNA magazine … ‘an immensely readable collection that leaves you wishing the stories were longer …’

The book is also featured in QMagazine – here’s a picture – there’s also an interview with Ashley for you to chase up.

and an extract from the story Elephant has appeared in Melbourne Star Observer (click on the link and tab through to page 18).

Ashley has also recorded all 8 stories and these will soon be launched as an audio book.

This month sees the release of Bait and Switch and Other Stories by Ashley Sievwright.

Eight stories of love, friendship, and indifference.

From teenage memories of staying with a cross-dressing cousin in Kings Cross, to estranged siblings scattering the ashes of a family member, not to mention perplexing encounters in Jordan, these eight stories reflect on family, friendship, desire and belonging and the ‘weight of inherited sorrow’ that each of us carries.

Ashley Sievwright is the author of the novels The Shallow End (Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Novel) and Walter; and co-author of the non-fiction A Year of Lighthouses and Another Year of Lighthouses. Ashley Sievwright lives in Melbourne.

204 pp. Paperback and ebook

ISBN 9780648460497 – paperback – RRP $22.00

ISBN 9780648746911 – ebook

Available at Hares & Hyenas bookshop and cafe; and The Bookshop Darlinghurst.

Available from all online platforms (Amazon, Booktopia etc, Apple, Kindle, Google Play), or order through your bookshop. Bookshops and libraries can order through Lightning Source.

Given the COVID 19 restrictions we are hoping to have some innovative launch events later – follow this blog for details.

This year Bent Street : Australian LGBTIQA+ Arts, Writing & Ideas is moving to a new biannual publishing model, with a curated mid-year edition (July), as well as our regular end-of-year edition (December).

In 2020 the mid-year edition (Bent Street 4.1) will be guest-edited by Jennifer Power and Henry von Doussa, on the theme ‘Love from a distance: intimacy and technology’, with support from LaTrobe University. This edition will explore how LGBTIQA+ communities shape relationship through emerging technologies.

(now released – see Bent Street 4.1 – Love from a Distance)

Contact us with any queries, or send us proposals for future curated editions at cloudsofmagellanpress@gmail.com

Clouds of Magellan will be launching in coming months two titles: a new collection of stories by Ashley Sievwright; and a re-issue in single-volume form of Garry Kinnane’s ‘Shadowed Days trilogy’. The COVID-19 lockdown is providing some challenges for the launching of new books, and we are investigating podcasts and other methods of publicising our titles.

Sunlight: The Shadowed Days Trilogy by Garry Kinnane – releasing midyear.  Pre-war Melbourne, through to the Bohemian 60s, a sojourn in Greece, study at Oxford. Garry Kinnane’s memoirs movingly capture the challenges and hardships of growing through family tragedy to finding love and friendship.

“A beautifully written evocation of a childhood during the post-war years in Victoria… Shadowed Days excels at pinning down a certain time and place.”—The Age

“… [a] quietly moving tale of a working class boy’s search for love and life beyond the
confines of the world he grew up in.”—Sydney Morning Herald

Bait and Switch : and other stories by Ashley Sievwright. Eight stories of love, friendship and indifference from the author of The Shallow End and Walter. Releasing May 2020.