On Beverley Farmer

Josephine Rowe, University of Melbourne, State Library of Victoria

In this beautifully hewn essay, novelist and short-story writer Josephine Rowe finds a kindred spirit in Beverley Farmer and argues for a celebration of this long-neglected Australian writer. Across Farmer's works there has always been an attraction to those beings who occupy two worlds... Once one has lived elsewhere, lived differently, it doesn't matter whether she stays to forge a new life or turns back towards the old, or moves on once again; there will always be the shadow, the after-image, of the life not lived. Beverley Farmer's writing reflects on restlessness, desire and homecoming. In this brilliantly acute essay, fellow novelist and short-story writer Josephine Rowe finds a kindred spirit and argues for a celebration and reclamation of this unique Australian author.