Bent Street

This month sees the release of Bait and Switch and Other Stories by Ashley Sievwright – Bent Street contributor and consulting fiction editor.

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.

The title is available now at Hares & Hyenas bookshop and cafe; and The Bookshop Darlinghurst.

Also 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.

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Bait and Switch and Other Stories by Ashley Sievwright is published by Clouds of Magellan Press, publisher of Bent Street. Clouds of Magellan is open to manuscript submissions from Bent Street contributors only.

Songs of the Godforsaken is a new chapbook of poems from Bent Street contributor John Bartlett. The collection, published by Picaro Poets, put me [GT] in mind of a lovely collection – Heaven’s Backyard by David Lander (Collins Dove 1984). John catches a poetic thermal from St Augustine, the prophets and the Evangelists, as well as suicide bombers, iPhone upgrades, and refugees who fall from aeroplanes. He reflects on his father, on people no longer with us, yet who remain to trouble our journey. Hints of late Clive James. A fantastic collection with memorable words and images. Nature and popular culture rub shoulders here, and there are warm/hot night encounters for the discerning reader. I particularly liked ‘The Song The Wind Sings’ (‘You hear them on train tracks / those voices of departure, / the songs of farewell …’). Visit John at https://beyondtheestuary.com/ and listen to his podcasts, or buy the chapbook.

[Gordon Thompson – Publisher, Clouds of Magellan]

This year Bent Street 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’. This edition will explore how LGBTIQA+ communities shape relationship through emerging technologies. Full details HERE

Submissions are now closed and 4.1 will publish in July 2020.

Submissions for the end-of-year Bent Street 4.2 are welcome any time.

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

We are having a Bent Street 3 Sydney launch at The Imperial, Erskinville on Thursday January 30th 6pm til 9pm.

Free Event. All Welcome.

TheBookshop Darlinghurst will be putting up a special ‘Pop-up store’ on the evening, to sell Bent Street 1, 2 and 3. Thankyou Les and Graeme for your tremendous support. Thankyou also to Guy James Whitworth, a Bent Street contributor, who is doing a lot of legwork to make the event happen.

Give your summer reading a Bent Street edge with these items from Bent Street 3.

Ending LGBT conversion practices – Timothy W Jones, Jennifer Power, Tiffany M Jones

The Prince of Redfern – Bee Cruse

Leatherman-made Climate Change – Guy James Whitworth

Road Ode – Cat Cotsell

Birds that haunt me—Ashley Williams

Wishing all our readers a safe holiday season. Climate Action Now.

Bent Street 3 can be ordered online from the usual suspects (Bookdepository / Booktopia / Amazon.com.au etc …), or from The Bookshop Darlinghurst, or Hares & Hyenas – online or inshop. Or ask your local bookshop to order it in through Lightning Source. You can also support Bent Street by asking your local library to get in a copy of Bent Street 1, 2, and 3 through James Bennett Library Services.