2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the International Year of Women, and NewSouth Publishing is all set to celebrate this milestone. ArtsHub speaks with NewSouth’s Executive Publisher, Elspeth Menzies, about some of the releases in store, but first, in order to herald the future, we need to hark back to the past to see how far we’ve come in terms of gender politics.
As it happens, Anne Summers’ Damned Whores and God’s Police is also celebrating its 50th birthday. NewSouth republished this book in 2016, and Menzies explains how it was an incendiary release.
“We strongly believe in keeping ground-breaking works in print and introducing them to new generations. When Damned Whores and God’s Police was published in 1975 it instantly became a landmark publication,” she says.
“Summers identified two key stereotypes that characterised Australian women as being either virtuous mothers, whose function was to civilise society, or bad girls who failed to conform and were vilified as a result. Fifty years after it was first published, her classic work is as relevant as ever. Sadly, stereotypes of women persist and continue to prevent Australian women from achieving full equality.”
NewSouth is bringing out Summers’ new book in November, a collection of essays called Writing for Her Life, which consists of opinion pieces both personal and political. “Everything from rape culture at a university college to the #MeToo movement and the experience of Julia Gillard as PM through a feminist lens,” says Menzies.
The publishing house has a long back catalogue of work featuring women pioneers, but Menzies is particularly proud of bringing to print such books as Charmian Clift’s subversive essays, Sneaky Little Revolutions and her unfinished novella, The End of the Morning.
Other titles?
“Yves Rees’ Travelling to Tomorrow introduced readers to a gutsy, trailblazing bunch of early 20th century women (and there’s more to come on this front in May with Jacqueline Kent’s illuminating account of radical women writers – Inconvenient Women),” says Menzies.
“Also, Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters (edited by Brigitta Olubas and Susan Wyndham) brought to life two incredible writers and a vanishing literary world, and Wyndham is publishing the definitive biography of the enigmatic and sublimely talented [Elizabeth] Harrower later this year.”
Menzies has been at NewSouth for close to two decades and she points out that highlighting the impact of women on Australian literature, politics, society and culture has always been central to the publishing program.
She is enthusiastic about another upcoming publication, slated for October, by Virginia Haussegger, which asks the pointed question: “Is our feminist future written in the past?” It traces the last 50 years of feminist milestones here and around the world.
“From 1975 ‘til now, right up to Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech, and the new generation of voices that came to lead the March 4 Justice movement and beyond,” she explains.
When asked how does publishing help to address and resolve some of the pressing issues for Australian women in the 21st century, Menzies explains that the industry ensures a platform for a multitude of voices that may have otherwise been muted or silenced. “Events here and around the world make it startlingly clear that all women’s rights – including trans women – must always be protected and fought for. From [Shirley] Hazzard, Harrower, Clift and Summers to Cher Tan, Micaela Sahhar, Zoe Kean, Raina MacIntyre and Eda Gunaydin, women’s writing and women’s stories are something we’ll always champion.”
For further information about past, current and upcoming publishing titles, visit NewSouth Publishing.
