JANUARY 2020:

The local book launch of Dark Sky Dreamings, an Inland Skywriter’s Anthology, was held at the Condobolin Library on Wednesday, 18 December 2019.
It features, two well known creative influencers, Marion Packham and Bonnie Gwyn, whose short stories appear in the book.
Author Doctor Merrill Findlay attended the launch, which contains inspiring prose and poetry by diverse Australian writers responding to the big sky and wide landscape of the inland Astro Trail.
The Astro Trail connects rural and remote communities with world-class astronomical observatories such as those at Parkes, Siding Springs and Narrabri.
Dr Findlay is a writer and cultural development practitioner who now lives in Forbes, NSW. Her published work includes a critically acclaimed novel, Republic of Women (UQP 1999), book chapters, blog posts, speeches, and scholarly articles.
She wrote in the forward: “Dark Sky Dreamings emerged from my Skywriters Project, part of the Big Skies Collaboration to catalyse new cultural and other opportunities for rural and remote communities in Inland New South Wales and the ACT. Over the past three years, I’ve travelled thousands of kilometres in Scarlet O’Barbara, the old red Toyota wagon gifted to me for this project by a literary friend. Scarlet is big enough for me to throw my camping gear in the back, and even sleep in her when conditions outside get rough. The Project has been conducted on such a miniscule budget that the amenities Scarlet provides have been fundamental to its success, as has the support provided by our many project partners, collaborators and friends.”
“The works in this book are as diverse as the authors themselves: funny, inspiring, thought provoking, poignant and profound. You’ll find intensely personal memoirs, essays that evoke a deep sense of home and belonging, Sci-Fi fantasies that take you to freshly imagined worlds, and poems of transcendent beauty about our place in the Universe. Some skystories are light and entertaining comfort food, while others address obdurate social challenges: domestic violence, misogyny, sexism, racism, white supremacism, religious fundamentalism, mental illness, animal cruelty, environmental degradation, rural conservatism, the impacts of colonisation on First Nations peoples, and, of course, our species’ future here and elsewhere in the Universe.”