ARCHIVES of The Write Stuff.
Volume 1, 1995-1996.

This volume contained the following essays and interviews:

Geoffrey Dean: The Australian Short Story

Richard Flanagan talks about 'Death of a River Guide'

G. W. Robinson: 'The Horseman'

Anne Kellas: Writing in South Africa

It contained the following book reviews (reviewed in The Write Stuff vol.1 1995-1996):

Robert Adamson
Waving to Hart Crane
J.G. Ballard: Running Wild
Marius Benson: Now is the Time: A personal account of South Africa's historic transition from apartheid to democracy
Bret Easton Ellis: The Informers
William Gibson: Neuromancer
Emma Gilbey: The Lady: the life and times of Winnie Mandela
Robert J. Groden: JFK: The Killing of a President
Winston Groom: Forrest Gump
Anton Harber & Barbara Ludman: A-Z of South African Politics
Jack Kerouac: Good Blonde
Gabrielle Lord: Bones
Blake Nelson: Girl
Douglas Rushkoff: Cyberia: life in the trenches of cyberspace
Hunter S. Thompson: Better than sex: confessions of a political junkie trapped like a rat in Mr. Bill's neighborhood
Tobias Wolff: In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of a lost war
Unfolding: AIDS quilt projects
The Stranger inside: an erotic adventure procured by Red Symons, written by Jean Bedford, Jennifer Byrne, Bryce Courtenay, Peter Goldsworthy, Gwen Harwood, Mark Henshaw, Gabrielle Lord, Steve J. Spears, Red Symons, (and) Lee Tulloch.
Suppressed inventions, by Dr Brian O'Leary, Christopher Bird, Jeane
Manning, Barry Lynes and others, edited by Jonathan Eisen
Survivors of abuse
a compendium of books reviewed

Editorial: Giles Hugo

GREETINGS from the remote antipodes of Cyberia. The WriteStuff evolved out of a weekly lit-crit newspaper column I used to write (1988-1992) and the desire to promote good writers and writing in the most eclectic sense. We ain't peddling no critical creed.

Our first issue, in April 1995, included an interview with Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan, whose highly successful and well-received first novel Death of a River Guide is in its third printing in as many months; short-story specialist Geoffrey Dean on the influences that threaten the survival of Australian short-story writers; and the trials and opportunities which faced writers in the South Africa of the mid-90s. an exploratory trek by Anne Kellas

The early days of the Write Stuff contained

Our motto - Light the candle and write! - is a phrase taken from a friend's dream. Ultimately, all you need to be a writer is a pencil, paper, light to see by, imagination and time. That motto embodies our belief that, although we are using the exciting technology of electronic publishing on the Internet, writers and writing are still the most important focus of our endeavour. We want to highlight and encourage good writers and writing.

Read. Write. Enjoy!

- Giles Hugo. April 1995.

Editorial from Anne Kellas, April 1995.

Long ago Gwen Harwood the Australian poet suggested I gather Giles Hugo's book reviews and interviews with writers and make a book of them. At the time Giles was producing a highly successful weekly column called the Write Stuff, in the Hobart Mercury, between 1988 and 1992.

His independent point of view in the world of Australian literature, and his refusal to pay homage to the sacred cows of the literary culture earned him respect from his readers, and criticism when sailing against the winds of prevailing literary favour. He gave up his reviewing when he received a Literature Board grant to finish his own novel, and carried on reviewing books for radio, but the idea of continuing The Write Stuff as an independent journal has been brewing away for some time.

As a poet I am also acutely aware of how few poetry books get reviewed. In the meantime my own work as a librarian brought me into contact with the hi-tech world of electronic publishing. Things came together.

It seems not too much to expect that readers of fiction and poetry might also be users of the Internet, and that to use this medium to point back to the printed world of books and writing can only be of service to writers and their readers. I hope this proves to be so!

- Anne Kellas
C/- The Write Stuff