Welcome to Vanark Press and Literary Advisory Services
We are a new small independent publisher dedicated to publishing exciting, fresh literary fiction and creative non-fiction in Australia. Interested primarily in giving innovative, young and new voices a start in literary publication, Vanark Press is at the cutting edge of Australian publishing and literary consultations encouraging creative approaches in writing, publicity/marketing and distribution.
Vanark Literary Advisory Services
Vanark also provides expert manuscript assessment and literary/academic advice.
With academic and literary experience our editors/ staff also offer constructive advice and support on academic proposals and theses in Professional and Creative Writing.
Available for talks, seminars, readings and conferences, Helen Cerne is an experienced freelance writer of novels, short stories and poetry. A lecturer and tutor for over a decade teaching Professional Writing at Victoria University and Community Adult Education classes, she has had much experience and expertise in supervising Honour students, minor and major MA theses in the Faculty of Arts.
Slogan:
Vanark - vanguard of innovative lit
ServicesAvailable
1. Editing & Proofreading
Copyediting
Structural editing
2. Manuscript assessment services
Fees
One chapter
$50
25,000 words
$250
60,000 words
$350
100,000 plus
$450
3. Academic Support for academic or creative theses
Vanark is interested primarily in fresh, innovative or experimental adult fiction and creative non-fiction. Send three chapters, a synopsis, and a CV to Vanark Press, 49 Fisher Pde, Ascot Vale, Vic 3032
NEWS
Exciting novel Personal Taxidermy set in Melbourne to be released in good independent bookshops late October 2007. For Reader's responses see below
Widmo is a child with a sickness.
Alone and frightened, he is taken in by a prostitute to a run-down hotel in inner city Melbourne.
As the boy attempts to navigate his way to his forgotten past, he discovers a twilight world, where he floats in the dark noir streets.
In the hotel, he encounters an eccentric Chinese food delivery girl with yellow rubber gloves, a down-and-out circus clown, and a man torn utterly by lost love
He also encounters Bebel, a traumatised former Italian funeral singer who is becoming morbidly obese.
Increasingly entangled in the world around him, Widmo's past eludes him, but he recognises the odd symbiosis in Bebel's fatal condition, his own predicament and their entwined fate.
Personal Taxidermy is a compelling fable, a meditation on reality, identity, love and redemption.
Readers' Responses to Personal Taxidermy
'Think Lewis Carroll meets Murakami, I loved these crazy people caught in a void of darkness. Whacky, whimsical and weird, this could become a classic.'
Writer and editor
'Blurring genres, first part noir, then part fantasy this is a novel which subverts and seduces at the same time. A book which is sure to have a cult following with its rich array of characters, surreal situations and profound insights.'
VU Lecturer in Advanced Fiction
'Compassionate and humane, this is an optimistic book which offers hope to those who live without it.'
A psychotherapist
'A haunting, enigmatic story with strong visual imagery which moves the heart and lifts the spirit.'
An artist and teacher
'Funny, disturbing and wise, this is a story which lingers in the mind long after its baffling closure. I can't forget it.'
CAE Book Club Leader
'An enigmatic, at times confusing but ultimately rewarding narrative this is a cryptic crossword of 250 pages.'
Coordinator of Western Union Writers
'Funny, perplexing and mesmerising, this is a wonderful story of loss and redemption.'
An avid reader
Blurb: Those Who Can't
This novel about teaching in the west of Melbourne is the compelling story of a woman, Ellen Donaldson who is a primary, secondary then tertiary teacher. A narrative journey of self-discovery, this autobiographical novel explores the tensions of balancing family, artistic expression, love and intimacy. Those Who Can't probes questions of identity and choice that are central to every contemporary woman's life.
Readers' responses to Those Who Can't
Engaging and poignant, a story that women with dreams will be inspired by.
Janet M.Brown, playwright
This book highlights a woman's struggle with commitment and that longing for fulfilment.
Margaret Campbell, CAE tutor, co-editor of Poetrix
Forthcoming novel - Release Date – August 2009
Blurb:SwimmingEnza Gandolfo
Kate Wilks is a swimmer, a teacher and a writer, but she has never been a mother. She believes she has a good and satisfying life until a chance encounter with her ex-husband and his daughter. Suddenly submerged by a past overflowing with grief, secrets and betrayals, Kate is forced to reassess her life. Swimming is a lyrical story of one woman's journey. A novel about loss and survival, friendship and love, creativity and fulfilment, it will resonate with anyone whose life hasn't turned out as planned.
Set in the western suburbs of Melbourne and on the surf beaches of the Great Ocean Road , Swimming is a novel that negotiates primarily in close-ups, taking the reader into the world of the protagonist, Kate Wilks: a swimmer, a teacher and writer. This is a poignant, emotional and psychological journey of a woman confronting several unplanned changes in mid life - childlessness, sexual betrayal and the desire for creative fulfilment. Kate is in her early sixties when the novel opens. Kate's days are divided between swimming, writing, and spending time with her lover George (a biker and journalist, almost fifteen years her junior) and with her friends, especially her best friend, Lynne, who has early onset Alzheimers. A chance encounter with her ex-husband Tom, propels Kate back into a past cloaked in grief, in secrets and betrayals. From this point, the narrative shifts between Kate's present life, and her past life partly documented in an unfinished manuscript titled, ‘Writing Sarah'. Written some twenty years ago, ‘Writing Sarah', begins with Kate's struggles to have a child. It is an exploration of her emotional state during those years, of her relationship with Tom, of his affair with Kate's friend Mai, and the breakdown of their marriage.
Thirty years later a friendship develops between Mai's daughter Leesa and Kate, and so Kate is forced to reassess her past; to think about what it means to be a woman that has never had a child; she is forced to confront the destructive aspects of her own nature. Swimming is compelling new novel about female friendship, artistic creativity, and unexpected childlessness.
Novelist, Amanda Lohrey wrote: ‘ Swimming is a charming and delicate work that very early establishes the weight and authority of voice . . . beautifully paced. There is a steady poise in the telling which I responded to, a mature sympathy that manifests in the writing as an impressive composure. All through there is a quiet conviction of tone, beautifully attuned to the moral and emotional complexities of the subject. The sea is a strong presence within the text…'
About the author: Enza Gandolfo works as a lecturer in Creative Writing at the School of Communication and the Arts at Victoria University . She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is the author of many published short pieces of fiction and non-fiction, as well as the recipient of several grants and awards, including a Varuna Fellowship. Her previous books include: Inventory: on op shops with Sue Dodd (Vulgar Press 2007) and it keeps me sane: women craft wellbeing with Marty Grace (Vulgar Press 2009). She lives in Melbourne .
Titles Available on Vanark
Price
Just Heart Work$10
A collection of poems and short prose pieces
about family, relationships and emotional connection
Those Who Can'tH.Cerne$19.99
A novel about a
female teacher who thinks creativity can make a difference.
Personal TaxidermyStuart Forsyth
$23.95Set in Melbourne, a haunting novel about loss and redemptionPlease include $2.45 for postage. Cheques made out to Vanark Press
