Book Launch: Blue Lake by David Sornig

Join David Sornig at Readings for the launch of his compelling new book Blue Lake, to be launched by Gary Presland with a performance from The Orbweavers.

In this social history and biography David Sornig examines how the 8km-square zone to the west of central Melbourne became the city's blind spot. Once a fertile wetland with a large blue saltwater lagoon, it passed through various incarnations: from boneyards and rubbish tips; through the Depression-era Dudley Flats shanty town; to the modern-day docks. He also follows the lives of three characters, and by charting the rises and falls in their individual fortunes, Sornig reveals much about the race and class divides of their times and explores questions about those strange and singular places in the urban fabric where chaos is difficult to contain.

About the author
David Sornig is the author of the novel Spiel (UWAP, 2009). His fiction and non-fiction writing has featured in the Griffith Review, Harvard Review, Adelaide Review, and Kill Your Darlings. He has lectured in creative writing and literary studies at a number of Australian universities and currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Melbourne. His essay ‘Jubilee: A Hymn for Elsie Williams on Dudley Flats’ was a finalist for the 2015 Melbourne Prize for Literature Writers Prize, and his subsequent work on Blue Lake was supported by a State Library Victoria Creative Fellowship. He lives in Melbourne.

Read David’s blog post on discovering the Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne Swamp.

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Book Launch: Blue Lake by David Sornig

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Blue Lake

Multi-time winner of the Australian Small Publisher of the Year Award