What we are doing.
We are two friends who met at the Victorian College of the Arts twenty years ago. We now live in a lively country town with a rich community life and impoverished soils and forest. We have come together to create children's picture books which celebrate and encourage the interdependant and mutual flourishing of community, nature and other. Our book, The Wanting Monster, is a gentle and humorous fable about a tiny monster who causes enormous trouble in one village. The story pits the small village, with its stream and forest and fields, against human greed, carefully stirred into the minds of the hapless villagers by the attention-seeking Wanting Monster.
With the publishing of our first book we are launching a small local enterprise which is a non profit, value driven, co operative press aimed at publishing a range of local and diverse voices. We see it as one of the many small, divergent ground-up enterprises that join an insurgence against the dominance of market forces and its degradation of culture and nature.
Why we are doing it.
We believe that culture should not be required to respond to competitive market forces, but should make authentic responses to our current reality. The books we would love to see still surviving, even flourishing, in these challenging, profit-driven times, are books that are thematically rich, that stimulate wonder, are unafraid, unconventional and visually arresting, but that also comfort and nourish. We will publish books that educate the heart, that celebrate friendship, humanity, community and our commonality and that inspire reverence for the natural world. In a time largely marked by divisiveness, competitiveness and an increasing erosion of our collective intelligence, we believe the education of children through these sorts of stories is essential if we are to bring about change.
We are
Anna Read studied art at the Victorian College of the Arts and has had a life long love for the picture book as an art form. Equally, one of her most significant relationships is with the natural world, and she has a particular interest in native flora and fauna, as a means to regenerate ecosystems, provide habitat and create beauty. ( You should see her garden!) She is part of a co operatively-run gallery space in Castlemaine where she exhibits ceramic art work.
Martine Murray is a writer whose work has been translated into more than 20 different languages. She has a long involvement in the arts, including dance, theatre, circus and filmmaking. Her first novel The Slightly True story of Cedar B Hartley was on the White Ravens international list of outstanding children’s books, and was shortlisted for the Victorian, NSW, QLD Premier's Awards and the CBC Award. She has gone on to write many short-listed and prize winning books for young, youthful and old.
Zenobia Ahmed is an independent graphic designer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Her practice focuses on research, design and social change through publishing, book design and occasional writing. Working collaboratively within the arts and cultural field she has designed fiction, non-fiction, artist books, journals and zines.
Donate to our crowdfunding campaign by selecting a reward from the list on the right. We are hugely grateful for any support.
If you would like to donate without a reward or a lesser or greater amount than the one's offered, click Support Project and enter an amount of your choice.
