Shapeshifting First Nations Lyric Nonfiction

Shapeshifting, co-edited by Jeanine Leane and Ellen van Neerven, is a wide-ranging collection of nonfiction by First Nations writers that breaks new ground. These lyric essays push the boundaries of nonfiction beyond the biographical or the academic, with pieces that experiment with form and embark on carefully crafting and re-crafting interventions that both challenge and expand existing genre structures. Shapeshifting brings to the fore a whole new genre waiting to take shape, to be formed, informed and re-formed by First Nations Australian writers. Contributors include Charmaine Papertalk Green, Jim Everett, Jenni Martiniello, Natalie Harkin, Mykaela Saunders, Daniel Browning, Evelyn Araluen, Alison Whittaker, Rhianna Patrick, Melanie Saward, Timmah Ball and Hugo Comisari.

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Ellen’ s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize. They are the author of two poetry collections: Comfort Food, shortlisted in the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards; and Throat, which won the Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards. Their memoir, Personal Score, won the VIC Premier’ s Literary Award for Non-fiction in 2023. Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from New South Wales. She has published widely in the area of Aboriginal literature, writing otherness and creative nonfiction. Jeanine has been the recipient of a number of literary prizes including the Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry, the David Unaipon Award, the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize for Poetry (twice), and the David Harold Tribe Award for Poetry, Australia’ s richest poetry prize. Jeanine is currently a First Nations Writer in Residence at the University of Melbourne. Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Ellen’ s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize. They are the author of two poetry collections: Comfort Food, shortlisted in the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards; and Throat, which won the Kenneth Slessor Prize, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier’ s Literary Awards. Their memoir, Personal Score, won the VIC Premier’ s Literary Award for Non-fiction in 2023. Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from New South Wales. She has published widely in the area of Aboriginal literature, writing otherness and creative nonfiction. Jeanine has been the recipient of a number of literary prizes including the Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry, the David Unaipon Award, the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize for Poetry (twice), and the David Harold Tribe Award for Poetry, Australia’ s richest poetry prize. Jeanine is currently a First Nations Writer in Residence at the University of Melbourne.