"Ray Willbanks has correctly identified Australian literature as some of the finest writing in English today, and, like a twentieth-century Captain Cook, he has crossed the seas and penetrated unexplored territory to get these interviews. Willbanks is an intrepid, innovative pioneer. Words can't express how valuable this book isoand is going to be." Carolyn See "[These] interviews are superbly crafted. The dialogue is informed and insightful. [Willbanks] really gets the writers to talk in the most interesting and relaxed manner, revealing not only their personal idiosyncrasies but also their Australianness in a most extraordinary way." Desley Deacon, co-director, Edward A. Clark Center for Australian Studies, University of Texas at Austin "It is people I go to literature for, for stories about what it is to be human ... Australian writers in the past have told us a great deal about the placeothe wombat, the bandicoot, the Bunyip, the outback ... Contemporary writers are telling us even more. They are telling us about ourselves." from the Introduction
