Tara June Winch - First Nations Classic: Swallow the Air launch

Launch of Tara June Winch's Swallow the Air(with an introduction by Yasmin Smith), re-released as part of UQP's First Nations Classics series.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When May’s mother dies suddenly, she and her brother Billy are taken in by Aunty. However, their loss leaves them both searching for their place in a world that doesn’t seem to want them. While Billy takes his own destructive path, May sets out to find her father and her Aboriginal identity. Her journey leads her from the Australian east coast to the far north, but it is the people she meets, not the destinations, that teach her what it is to belong.

Swallow the Air is an unforgettable story of living in a torn world and finding the thread to help sew it back together.

ABOUT THE FIRST NATIONS CLASSICS

The First Nations Classics series ranges across genres, including memoir, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Showcasing a number of Unaipon Award winners, the series is inspired by the richness and cultural importance of First Nations writing, and the longstanding role UQP has had in publishing extraordinary Indigenous authors. It aims to bring new readers and renewed attention to some brilliant, timeless books that are as important, engaging and relevant today as they were on first publication.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri author, born in Australia in 1983 and based in France. Her first novel, Swallow the Air, was critically acclaimed and she was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, and has won numerous literary awards. A tenth anniversary edition was published in 2016. In 2008, Tara was mentored by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her second book, the story collection After the Carnage, was published in 2016. It was longlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, and shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, and the Queensland Literary Award for a story collection. Her most recent novel, The Yield, won the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.