‘I am out of words at home. I have grown bored with my language; bored with my voice; bored with my writing. My words labour under Australia’s history. The land itself, as much as I love it, bears down hard.
Now, in another place, I am finding lighter words. At times, I may not need to speak at all. I smile; I nod. I seek permission to speak. Please, do you mind? Will you allow me?’
In an important book for our times, Stan Grant — one of Australia’s most prominent writers on identity, nationhood and belonging — reflects on how we struggle to speak to one another today, and the importance of listening, silence and philosophy, from Plato to Simone Weil to Radiohead.
A proud Wiradjuri man, Stan Grant is the Vice Chancellor’s Chair of Australian/Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University. He was formerly ABC’s Global Affairs and Indigenous Affairs Analyst. He is the award-winning and bestselling author of several books, including Talking to My Country, The Queen is Dead and Australia Day.
May 2026
Hardback
181 x 111 mm
128 pp $26.99
ISBN: 9781761170751
ebook: 9781761179457
ePDF: 9781761178726
The Vanishing Wild: Australian wildlife and the fight against extinction
Justine E. Hausheer
Award-winning science journalist Justine E. Hausheer travels across the continent to meet some incredible native animals – and the innovative scientists who are working to give them a better future.
Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, and yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation.
In this book, Justine E. Hausheer encounters the pygmy possums who live high in the Snowy Mountains, hears the booming calls of bitterns from their adopted home in the Riverina’s rice fields, crouches after dark in the spinifex grasslands listening for the elusive night parrot, and meets the adorable fat-tailed dunnarts who might hold the answers to reviving the Tasmanian tiger.
The Vanishing Wild shows us the harsh reality of the extinction crisis – as well as the future of conservation and what can be done to save Australia’s native species.
May 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
252 pp
22 illustrations
$34.99
ISBN: 9781761170393
ebook: 9781761179372
ePDF: 9781761178634
Justine E. Hausheer is a science writer for The Nature Conservancy. Her favourite stories take her into the field, where she’s followed logging elephants through Myanmar, surveyed for sea cucumbers in Manus, and waded into outback waterholes. Her stories have won awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. She holds a master’s degree from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. She now lives on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The House of Blue Glass: A life of Penelope Lucas
Alan Atkinson
Acclaimed historian Alan Atkinson pieces together the life of Penelope Lucas and the pivotal role she played in building the Macarthur empire.
In The House of Blue Glass, Alan Atkinson –author of the award-winning Elizabeth & John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm – explores the life of Penelope Lucas. While she is known as the Macarthur family governess, Atkinson reveals Penelope was primarily an accountant whose bookkeeping work made an important difference to the Macarthurs’ success.
Penelope Lucas came to Australia in 1804–1805, in her thirties, unmarried and looking forward to living on inherited income. While Elizabeth Macarthur was unsurprisingly upset when John arrived back from three years in England with a woman she had never heard of, Penelope went on to live with the Macarthurs for over thirty years and became close friends with Elizabeth. In this revelatory work, Atkinson brings together fifty years of scholarship as he explores the gender dynamics of the Macarthur household and the life of a single woman of means in Georgian England and early colonial Sydney.
March 2026
Paperback
234 x 153 mm
384 pp
12 illustrations
$39.99
ISBN: 9781761170379
ebook: 9781761179419
ePDF: 9781761178672
Alan Atkinson is the author of Europeans in Australia, volumes I–III (volume III won the Victorian Prize for Literature) and Elizabeth & John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm (winner, 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards, Australian History Prize and 2023 Ernest Scott Prize).
Raven Mother: War, family and inheritance –a memoir
Jane Messer
A powerful work of memoir and history that grapples with global events and the intimate struggles of family and memory.
In Raven Mother, Jane Messer retraces the tragic and hopeful steps of her Jewish German grandmother, Bella. Following her journey from pre-war Berlin, to Mandate Palestine and then Melbourne – where she didn’t survive the surviving
– Messer tries to understand Bella’s life and why she abandoned her son Michael in England before the war. Along the way, she speaks with historians in Germany, peace activists, scholars and refugees in Israel and Palestine, and, constantly, to her beloved father.
Messer shifts between the personal and the historical with lyrical precision as she contends with the effects of nationalism, both historical and contemporary.
March 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
272 pp $34.99
ISBN: 9781761170638
ebook: 9781761179396
ePDF: 9781761178658
Jane Messer is a writer of novels, short stories and essays, is a regular contributor to The Conversation, and is a former Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Macquarie University. She is the founder and director of StorySALOON, a live show and podcast dedicated to Australian short stories. As the daughter of a refugee, she finds herself compelled to write about fractured lives, marginal people and migration, and in Raven Mother takes on the complex task of exploring both Jewish and Palestinian histories of displacement and exile.
A love letter to libraries everywhere.
The Library that Made Me celebrates 200 years of the State Library of NSW — its evolution, its remarkable collection and its people. It has earned its enduring place in the heart of the city, and in the hearts of readers and visitors everywhere.
In the early days, members were vetted, women weren’t welcome and having fiction on the shelves raised eyebrows. Libraries today are vibrant cultural hubs open to all that are shaped by the people they serve.
A love letter to libraries everywhere, The Library that Made Me is a book readers will want on permanent loan. It will make you wonder about library that made you.
The Library that Made Me: 200 years of the State Library of NSW
Edited by Richard Neville and Phillipa McGuinness
Richard Neville is the Mitchell Librarian and Director, Learning, Scholarship and Outreach at the State Library of NSW. A judge of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 15 years, he is also the author of Mr JW Lewin and co-editor of Reading the Rooms.
Phillipa McGuinness is the editor of Openbook, the State Library of NSW’s quarterly magazine, and the Library’s Lead, Editing and Publishing. A former non-fiction book publisher, she is the editor of Copyfight, and author of The Year Everything Changed — 2001 and Skin Deep.
March 2026
Hardback
260 x 200 mm
344 pp
110 illustrations
$49.99
ISBN: 9781761170713
ePDF: 9781761178696
Crip Stories: An anthology of disabled writers
A Mascara Anthology
Edited by BS Windon, Laura Pettenuzzo, Misbah Wolf, Katie Hansord
The word crip was once used to discriminate. Today, it is reclaimed and celebrated.
Crip Stories is a gathering of vibrant and diverse experiences from disabled people. A collection of narrative non-fiction, essays and poetry, it affirms the ethos of ‘nothing about us without us’ by amplifying first-person narrative voices of lived experience.
With contributions from Carly Findlay, TextaQueen, CB Mako, Carly-Jay Metcalfe, Skye Cusack, Jenny Hedley, Akii Ngo, Sharleigh Crittenden, Angela Costi, Hen Sid Chandran, Ari Spanos, Sandra Collins, J Marahuyo, Mario Licón Cabrera, Franklyn Hudson, Ann Nguyen, Rosie Putland, Priya Gore Johnson, Mona Zahra Attamimi, Joey Harper, Judith Huang, Pat Bui, Kerri Shying, Arty Owens, Irina Frolova, Hannah Hall, Julie Dickson, Marina Sano, Ariel Riveros, Ethan Patrick, Paris Rosemont and Sam Hamad.
BS Windon is a neurodivergent writer of Wiradjuri descent based in Naarm.
Laura Pettenuzzo (she/her) is a disabled writer, speaker and accessible communications professional.
Misbah Wolf (she/they) is a CALD neurodivergent multidimensional artist living in Naarm.
Katie Hansord (she/they) is a neurodivergent and queer writer and researcher in Naarm.
April 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
208 pp $34.99
ISBN: 9781761170478
ebook: 9781761179365
ePDF: 9781761178627
Gold Standard?
Remembering the Hawke Government
Edited by Frank Bongiorno, Carolyn Holbrook and Joshua Black
Was the Hawke Government ‘the gold standard’ for federal government in Australia?
A stellar lineup of historians, social scientists, politicians and journalists sheds valuable new light on the policies, politics and personalities of the Hawke Government and asks: What lessons can it offer in the art of reformist government? How do its legacies continue to shape Australian society? What light can it shed on urgent questions about social policy, income (in)equality, economic reform and fairness in Australian society?
Troy Bramston and Andrew Podger explain how Hawke masterfully managed the work of government and administration; Michelle Grattan and Meghan Hopper analyse how the government and prime minister dealt with the media; Frank Bongiorno shows how the Labor Party won four elections on the trot, and Marija Taflaga looks at how unprepared Hawke’s opponents were for their period in the wilderness. Bruce Chapman and Liam Byrne discuss the competing legacies of the Labor-Union Accords of the 1980s; Meredith Edwards and Carolyn Holbrook demonstrate that social justice and health reform were still possible in the context of fiscal restraint; Marian Sawer shows how women’s policy mattered, while Peter Yu recalls the major disappointments of the era for First Nations Australians. Gareth Evans and Ian Macphee offer their perspectives on the Hawke Government’s legacies and impact; Barrie Cassidy and Craig Emerson share their recollections of the Hawke office, and Joshua Black shows that memories of the Hawke era were not so rosy in its immediate aftermath.
April 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
320 pp
15 illustrations
$39.99
ISBN: 9781761170522
ebook: 9781761179464
ePDF: 9781761178733
Frank Bongiorno is a historian at the Australian National University who has written extensively on the Hawke era.
Carolyn Holbrook is a historian at Deakin University and Director of the Australian Policy and History network.
Joshua Black is a historian of Australian politics, and is currently working as a media adviser and speechwriter.
The First Albanese Government: Governing in an age of disruption and division, 2022–2025
Edited by John Hawkins, Michelle Grattan and John Halligan
Australia’s leading voices on politics and policy examine the first Albanese Government.
From the narrow election victory to the commanding majority secured in 2025, this book traces the Albanese Government’s first term, navigating economic turbulence and a shifting international landscape. What were the policy hits and misses? What was the impact of the failed Voice referendum? And how did the government manage key reforms?
With a preface by Bill Shorten, and contributions from leading scholars, including Frank Bongiorno, Rae Cooper, Liz Allen and more, this book captures the major issues of the Albanese Government’s first term and looks towards their future years in government.
John Hawkins is Head of the Canberra School of Government at the University of Canberra. Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent for The Conversation. John Halligan is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Governance at the University of Canberra, Australia.
February 2026
Paperback
234 x 153 mm
304 pp $49.99
ISBN: 9781761170737
ebook: 9781761179389
ePDF: 9781761178641
Being Patient: Close Encounters in Cancer World
Na’ama Carlin, Louise Chappell and Siobhan O’Sullivan
A collection of raw and illuminating stories from cancer patients and the medical professionals who treat them.
Na’ama Carlin, Louise Chappell and Siobhan O’Sullivan all received the diagnosis people dread – cancer. Working in universities, these three women knew how to speak up. But in Cancer World, their voices were often unheard. As they negotiated medical hierarchies, ‘scanxiety’, gender bias, ongoing treatments and confronting diagnoses, they met others who felt the same. In Being Patient, Na’ama, Louise and Siobhan share their own stories and talk to people about their experiences as patients and carers in Cancer World. Including stories from cancer experts – nurses, surgeons, radiologists, oncologists, and researchers
– Being Patient is unflinching and uplifting, and offers unvarnished views of living with cancer from ‘both sides of the desk’.
Na’ama Carlin is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of New South Wales.
Louise Chappell is a Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, where she researches gender justice in relation to politics, policy and law.
Siobhan O’Sullivan was an Associate Professor of Social Policy and Research at the University of New South Wales, where she worked on inequality, policy, and animal rights.
May 2026
Paperback
234 x 153 mm 240 pp $34.99
ISBN: 9781742237916
ebook: 9781761179433
ePDF: 9781761178702
Quiet Protest: A new history of activism during the Vietnam War
Effie Karageorgos
A new history of protest told through the quiet activism of everyday Australians.
The Vietnam War sparked the largest public demonstrations Australia had ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of citizens actively opposed the war in the 1960s and 70s. It was a protest movement that changed the way people across the country responded to political decisions that impacted their lives.
Quiet Protest uncovers a hidden side of this movement, telling the story of activism that was powered by letter-writing, legal aid, fundraising and everyday conversations. The public anti-Vietnam War protest movement was unprecedented, but so was the ‘quieter’ movement. By focusing on the anti-Vietnam War movement in New South Wales, this book offers a case study that re-imagines our understanding of protest.
These quieter acts of dissent reshaped political engagement and laid the groundwork for future movements – from feminist organising to climate justice. Historian Effie Karageorgos offers a captivating new perspective on what it means to protest and who gets remembered.
April 2026
Paperback
234 x 153 mm
256 pp
40 illustrations
$49.99
ISBN: 9781761170263
ebook: 9781761179426
ePDF: 9781761178689
Effie Karageorgos is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Newcastle. She teaches and researches histories of protest, mental health, gender, war and violence. She was awarded the State Library of New South Wales David Scott Mitchell Fellowship in 2023. She is Deputy Co-Director of the UON Centre for Society, Health and Care Research, co-editor of Health and History journal and sits on the History Council of New South Wales General Council.
The Anzac legend has shaped Australia’s national identity for more than a century. Yet many Australians’ experiences of war do not fit comfortably within this mythic narrative.
In Challenging Anzac, leading historians explore these stories: diggers who contested the dominance of politically conservative veterans; soldiers whose war experience led them to later radical protest; military personnel denied recognition as Anzacs by their non-traditional service or behaviour; and men for whom the dissonance in their postwar lives was so profound that they took their own lives. Stories that deviated from the Anzac legend have been erased, elided and adapted to ‘fit’ the legend.
Edited by award-winning historians Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont, this anthology examines how the reality of warfare has always been at odds with mythic representation and explains why, despite this, the Anzac legend has survived.
Challenging Anzac: Stories
Edited
that don’t fit
the legend
by Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont
Mia Martin Hobbs is an oral historian of war and conflict, with a research focus on the Vietnam War, War on Terror, gender, peace, security and post-war reconciliation.
April 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
352 pp
16 illustrations
$39.99
ISBN: 9781761170706
ebook: 9781761179471
ePDF: 9781761178740
Carolyn Holbrook is Associate Professor in History in the Centre for Contemporary Histories at Deakin University and is the author of Anzac: The Unauthorised Biography. Joan Beaumont is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, the history of prisoners of war and the memory and heritage of war.
The People’s Guide to the Australian Constitution
Rosalind Dixon and William Partlett
Everything you need to know about the Australian constitution – its past, present and future.
Far from being an unchangeable, technical legal contract, A People’s Guide to the Australian Constitution illustrates how the Australian Constitution gives people the power to participate in and decide the shape of government and the policies it adopts. Leading legal academics Rosalind Dixon and William Partlett shed light on what Governor General John Kerr didn’t acknowledge about the Constitution when he dismissed the Whitlam Government, the tension between Australia’s Christian settler colonial constitutional identity and the recognition of First Nations peoples, the advantages and risks of constitutional change and much more. At almost 125 years old, Australia’s constitution is one of the oldest in the world, and while this has brought stability, it also gives the Australian people an opportunity to participate in adapting it to changing times.
March 2026
Paperback
198 x 128 mm
144 pp $19.99
ISBN: 9781761170515
ebook: 9781761179402
ePDF: 9781761178665
Rosalind Dixon is a Professor of Law at UNSW Sydney and the author of Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal Globalization and the Subversion of Liberal Democracy (with David Landau) and Responsive Judicial Review: Democracy and Dysfunction in the Modern Age. William Partlett is Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne Law School and Co-Director of its Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. He is also the Stephen Charles Fellow at the Centre for Public Integrity.
Speak Up:
How to be a confident presenter and media spokesperson
Theresa Miller
Whatever your role, this easy-to-use guide will empower you to step up to the microphone, tell your story and make an impact.
Theresa Miller has spent decades working as a journalist and training people – from CEOs and academics to climate campaigners, entrepreneurs and artists – across all industries to communicate confidently, clearly and concisely. In Speak Up, she shares these skills to help people master the art of communicating effectively with an audience –whether it’s creating an inspiring work presentation or media release, blitzing a job interview, or getting your message across on a podcast, TV or radio interview or panel.
Theresa Miller has coached thousands of people in the art of mastering media interviews, public speaking and corporate writing. She has worked as a reporter, producer and presenter for Channel Seven, Channel Nine, ABC and SBS-TV and has taught journalism at Sydney University and UNSW.
March 2026
Paperback
210 x 135 mm
192 pp $32.99
ISBN: 9781761170447
ebook: 9781761179358
ePDF: 9781761178610
REISSUES OF BESTSELLING CLASSICS
Mark Treddinick is a celebrated Australian writer and teacher. His writing, both poetry and prose, is widely published, translated and read across the world. Mark’s honours include two Premier’s Prizes, the Calibre Essay Prize, the Montreal, Cardiff, Newcastle, Blake, Ron Pretty, and ACU poetry prizes.
The Little Red Writing Book, first published in 2006, and The Little Green Grammar Book (2008), along with his teaching over twenty-five years, have influenced the craft of a generation of writers.
The Little Red Writing Book
Mark Tredinnick
The Little Red Writing Book is a lively and readable guide to lively and readable writing.
A book on technique, style, craft and manners for everyone who writes and wants to do it better. It is a manual of good diction, composition, sentence craft, paragraph design, structure and planning. Enriched by examples of fine prose from great writers and written with flair, The Little Red Writing Book is a lively and readable guide to lively and readable writing.
NewSouth | February 2026 | Paperback | 210 x 135 mm 264 pp | $32.99 | ISBN: 9780868408675 ebook: 9781742240268 | ePDF: 9780868401454
The Little Green Grammar Book
Mark Tredinnick
What really goes on inside a sentence? What is your subject, and where is your verb, and what is its tense, and where is your modifier, and why does it matter?
In The Little Green Grammar Book, Mark Tredinnick asks and answers the tough grammar questions – big and small – with verve and authority. It will have you writing like a writer in no time.
NewSouth | February 2026 | Paperback | 210 x 135 mm 256 pp | $32.99 | ISBN: 9780868409191 ebook: 9781742240275 | ePDF: 9781742230580
WINNER OF THE 2025 PRIME MINISTER’S LITERARY AWARD FOR AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis by Geraldine Fela
Judges’ comments: In an age when public health is a matter of urgent concern, Critical Care is both an original and revealing history of Australia’s response to AIDS and a valuable source of guidance for the future.
‘ Critical Care shows how Australia’s AIDS crisis aroused fear, hatred and homophobia and yet forged new bonds of care, community and love. This beautifully told story of the nursing profession’s response to acute suffering and great tragedy – borne predominantly by gay men – is among the most moving Australian histories I have read. It will be essential for anyone interested in health, the professions, gender, sexuality and the shifting emotional landscape of the nation.’
FRANK BONGIORNO, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
‘This outstanding book chronicles the role of nurses in addressing the AIDS pandemic, after the arrival of HIV. The old approach to epidemics was strict control and isolation. But something new was required by the nature of this unexpected crisis. Fortunately, in Australasia, healthcare professionals and lawmakers rose to the occasion. The special challenge of coping with patients needing care, often when they were profoundly sick and dying; where no vaccine was available; and no drugs were effective at first to turn the tide, put huge pressure on nurses on the front line. They helped lead our community to address the AIDS paradox. This book tells a heroic story. I honour the author and those whose work she describes so that their lessons will not be forgotten.’
THE HON. MICHAEL KIRBY, PAST JUSTICE OF THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA AND PATRON OF THE KIRBY INSTITUTE
WINNER OF THE 2025 NSW HISTORY AWARD FOR COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL HISTORY
Yirranma Place: Stories of a Darlinghurst corner by Alana Piper
Judges’ comments: Yirranma Place is a literary and visual tour de force of an inner-city Sydney neighbourhood that stretches from First Nations experiences in pre-contact times through to the present day.
WINNER OF THE 2025 NSW HISTORY AWARD FOR GENERAL HISTORY
Vector: A surprising story of space, time, and mathematical transformation by Robyn Arianrhod
Judges’ comments: Vector is both a towering display of erudition and a deeply engaging, charming and intimate retelling of the lives and times of its subjects and their work.
‘Arianrhod shows, with beautiful ease, that maths is not some foreign world only geeks inhabit. It is the world around us.’
ADAM SPENCER
NewSouth Publishing makes thought-provoking books that create debate and tackle social, political and scientific issues. Books that are great to read and great to look at. Books that make you think.
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