{"id":6810,"date":"2020-04-28T19:49:03","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T19:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/?p=6810"},"modified":"2022-08-05T05:52:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T05:52:08","slug":"australian-nz-publishers-release-new-histories-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/2020\/04\/28\/australian-nz-publishers-release-new-histories-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian & NZ Publishers Release New Histories During Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australian governments don’t want people to wear masks outside for numerous reasons. However, if you are even slightly unwell and travelling to a testing centre to be tested for the virus you must wear a mask. This is a photo of us on the way to get tested for Covid-19. We live within walking distance from a testing centre but were told to drive there and wear masks. Our test results were negative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the upside-down world of the Covid-19 pandemic business have closed or are running with skeleton staff, queues of newly unemployed people have stretched around the block from Centrelink offices and people have stopped spending money. Well-functioning economies require a healthy population. The economy declines if a rampant disease is affecting society.<\/p>\n

In times like these many bookshops are struggling and have had to close their physical shops due to the stringent social-distancing regulations introduced. We may be reading more now that we are confined at home, but buying books is the kind of discretionary spending that you would think that people who are worried about their jobs would be cutting out.<\/p>\n

Running a business is very difficult under the new regulations and in the current economic climate. I would understand if publishers were pausing the publication of new books so I was delighted when I saw news this morning that Australian publishers are continuing to publish new Australian history books and even sign up new authors!<\/p>\n

Now more than ever, authors, bookshops and publishers need to be supported. In this post I highlight some new histories which have been published by Australasian publishers this year that you may want to consider buying. I include New Zealand publishers because I think Australians should support New Zealand as they support us. New Zealanders have made a wonderful contribution to Australian arts and our society generally.<\/p>\n

Feel free to share publishers and books that I have missed. This list includes biographies but does not include historical fiction. I have not read any of these books, so the fact that a book is listed is not an endorsement of the book from me. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes that follow are from the publisher’s blurb about the book from their website. Where possible I have also linked to authors’ websites.<\/p>\n

Melbourne University Press<\/h2>\n

Congratulations are in order for author Nathan Hobby<\/a> for being signed up by Melbourne University Press. Hobby is writing a biography of Australian author, Katharine Susannah Prichard. We will have to wait until 2021 before we can read it.<\/p>\n

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Here I am in the Officeworks carpark signing a contract with @MUPublishing<\/a> for my biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard. Publication in 2021 with the working title "The Red Witch". 17 years since my last book contract – you can call me the comeback kid. Now to finish it! pic.twitter.com\/1SnsXXYSdr<\/a><\/p>\n

— Nathan Hobby (@NathanHobby) April 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n