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Friends of Fryer Christmas Party |
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Thursday 3rd December 2009
You are invited to the Friends of Fryer Christmas Party
Guest Speaker: Mr Nick Mitzevich, Director of the UQ Art Museum, who will conduct a tour of the Self-Portraits Prize Exhbition |
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Time: 5:30m
Venue: UQ Art Museum, University Drive, The University of Queensland, St Lucia
(Paid parking available nearby on University Drive or Mill Road)
Cost: $20, refreshments provided
RSVP: 27 November to Nea Daniels. Phone 3346 4328, fax 3365 3482, email: n.daniels@library.uq.edu.au
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Meet the Author & Book Launch |
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Stephany Evans Steggall
On Thursday 29 October the Friends of Fryer hosted a morning tea to celebrate the launch of Dr Stephany Evans Steggall's new biobpraphy of Queensland poet Bruce Dawe, entitled Bruce Dawe: Life Cycle (Ginderra Press).
Dr Steggall completed her PhD at The University of Queensland, worked as a researcher on the AustLit database, and is the author of three previous books: Can I Call You Colin?: The Authorised Biography of Colin Thiele, The Loved and the Lost: The Life of Ivan Southall, and Yours Sincerely, Colin Thiele.
Bruce Dawe is one of Queensland's best-known and best-loved poets. He completed his first three volumes of poetry and his first degree while serving in the RAAF from 1959 to 1968. In 1972 he joined the staff of the University of Southern Queensland and completed his master's and doctoral degrees there before being promoted to Associate Professor in 1990. He was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to literature in 1992 and was appointed University of Southern Queensland's first Honorary Professor in 1993.
Fryer Library holds 39 boxes of Bruce Dawe's literary and personal papers.
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Meet the Author |
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Thomas Keneally
On Monday 14 September crowds packed the IMB Auditorium to hear Thomas Keneally author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler's Ark, deliver a free public lecture on the topic "Under the Gun : Writing in Australia". Keneally had just appeared at the Brisbane Writers Festival where he also delivered the closing address. His visit to UQ was an exciting opportunity for staff, students and the wider community to hear one of the nation's most acclaimed authors.
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Keneally delighted the audience by taking questions and staying on to sign copies of his books. He then visited the Library, which contains a significant body of his work including several of his early manuscripts, where he signed books and viewed selected items from the Fryer Library collection. |
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The Professor and the Librarian - Friday, 14 August 2009
When it comes to romance there's never too much information! |
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On Friday 14 August the UQ Library hosted Day Two of the inaugural conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. This newly formed body gathered together scholars from around the globe to discuss topics such as romance manga (by UQ's Dr Toni Johnson-Woods), Andrew Morton's biography of Princess Diana, The Sheik in novel and film, Georgette Heyer, and attitudes of public libraries towards romance readers.
Fryer Library and AustLit sponsored the main afternoon session of the conference, with speakers Juliet Flesch and Toni Johnson-Woods. Dr Juliet Flesh from the University of Melbourne has written two important works about Australian romance fition, and was the source of the more than 1500 novels in the Australian Romance Fiction Collection in the Fryer Library. She spoke about these books, about her collection, and about the attitudes of other Australian libraries in building up romance fiction collections. Toni Johnson-Woods then spoke about AustLit's role in indexing this fiction, showing examples of AustLit records as well as a slideshow of book covers from the Fryer collection.
The conference included a display of some of the Fryer Library books. Conference attendees and Friends of Fryer were treated to a Devonshire Tea after the talks.
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Laurie Hergenhan
The Fryer Library was the venue for the Brisbane launch of Cyril Hopkins' Marcus Clarke, edited by Laurie Hergenhan, Ken Stewart and Michael Wilding. This biography of Marcus Clarke was written a century ago by Cyril Hopkins, brother of Gerard Manley Hopkins and a close friend of Clarke, published now for the first time by Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Laurie Hergenhan, AO, Emeritus Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Queensland, is a long-time associate of the Fryer Library. The founding editor (1963-2002) of Australian Literary Studies, his books include a study of the convict novel, Unnatural Lives, and an edition of Marcus Clarke's journalism, A Colonial City. Much of his work on this book was done during his time as Honorary Fryer Library Fellow in 2006. |
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 Photo by Karen Donnelly, 2008 |
Humphrey McQueen
On 27 May, UQ alumnus and acclaimed historian Humphrey McQueen appeared at The University of Queensland Library to discuss his latest book, Framework of Flesh: Builders' Labourers Battle for Health and Safety.
In an informative talk which showed why he is in much demand as a speaker, Humphrey McQueen talked about the purpose of the book and the significance of the title which was inspired by the memoirs of labourer Charlie Sullivan, who had said "few ever think of the great and humble army whose sweat and blood are mingled in the concrete and bricks as surely as if the walls were built over a framework of human flesh&q. Mr McQueen also alluded to his time as a student at The University of Queensland and paid tribute to the Fryer Library.
The event was well attended by current UQ staff and students as well as alumni, Friends and community.
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Triumph in the Tropics - Wednesday 20 May 2009
A Curator's Tour of the UQ Art Museum's exhibit "Triumph in the Tropics: Selling Queensland" was conducted on Wednesday 20 May 2009 from 6pm to 8pm at the UQ Art Museum. Attendees were invited to bring items of Queensland memorabilia to show the curators. |
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Kate Morton in conversation with Kim Wilkins, 30 April 2009
Recently the Fryer Library and the University of Queenland hosted a lunch with authors Kate Morton and Kim Wilkins to hear their personal perspectives on writing. Their latest novels are The Forgotten Garden and Unclaimed Heart.
   
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View a selected gallery of images of the event |
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On Wednesday 3 December the Friends of Fryer celebrated Christmas with guest speaker Dr Veny Armanno. Veny is the author of a number of award-winning novels, as well as being a Senior Lecturer in EMSAH. At the Christmas party Veny spoke about the genesis of his book Candle Life. He talked about his time in Paris as a resident at the Cite' International des Arts, where in true romantic fashion he lived in a tiny studio and wandered the streets at night as a 'noctambuliste'. There he had a number of adventures which were later woven into his novel. Veny's tales of the catacombs of Paris, mysterious beggars and dark wartime events were delivered with the same narrative flair as shown in the novel, and the audience was highly appreciative.
Cathy Leutenegger, Senior Librarian, Fryer Library
View a selected gallery of images of the event
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 | Fryer Library sponsored a session at the Brisbane Writer's Festival featuring Julian Burnside, author of Watching Brief: Reflections on Human Rights, Law and Justice (2007), in conversation with Steven Keim. The session was chaired by UQ University Librarian Keith Webster.
Fryer Library holds the papers of Julian Burnside and his wife, Kate Durham, a collection which inspired the "Refugee Narratives" seminar described below.
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The Brisbane Exhibition in 1927. From Fryer Library, Papers of Henry William Mobsby, UQFL181, Box 1, Photograph #41 |
In August the Fryer Library held its third Friends of Fryer event for the year. It was timed to coincide with the Ekka and the recent publication of Showtime: A History of the Brisbane Exhibition (University of Queensland Press), a new book by Dr Ross Laurie and Dr Joanne Scott. The authors were guest speakers at the Friends event and delighted the audience with their presentation All the Fun of the Fair: Reflections on the History of the Brisbane Exhibition.
Read more about the event and view a gallery of images.
A number of photographs from the Brisbane Exhibition are available in The University of Queensland's institutional digital repository UQ eSpace http://espace.library.uq.edu.au, search for "Brisbane Exhbition"
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On 19 June The University of Queensland Library recognised Refugee Week with a seminar intended to promote and encourage discussion of refugee issues. Inspired by the Fryer Library's Burnside/Durham collection, which contains correspondence between Australian activists and refugees detained on Nauru, the discussion brought together academics and community members. It was the first time this type of event had been held but it has proved to be a great success. The event was an opportunity to not only showcase the significant collection of material on the topic held in the Fryer Library, but to provide a forum for academics and researchers to mix with members of the community and discuss refugee issues. The Burnside/Durham collection is an important example of the community value of preserving the narratives of real people and learning from their experiences.
The four-hour seminar included presentations from UQ's Professor Gillian Whitlock, from the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, whose Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit is about life narrative and the war on terror; Dr Jeff Rickertt, a librarian at the Fryer Library; Dr Karen Dooley from QUT's School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education; and Bruce Henry, an immigration lawyer who was formerly a member of the Immigration Review Tribunal.
Following the presentations was a panel discussion chaired by Adele Rice, a prominent refugee activist and Principal of Milpera State High School. The panel consisted of four community leaders from communities with significant numbers of people who came to Australia originally as refugees. Some are relatively recent arrivals, others have been here for many decades. Mr Trung Nguyen, who is originally from Vietnam, Ms Magdalena Kuyang, originally from Sudan, Mr Rafael Pacheco originally from El Salvador, and Mr Ali Karimi originally from Afghanistan were invited to form the panel. These people have all had personal experiences of living in and fleeing repressive regimes. They are respected leaders of their communities in Australia and were able to inspire passionate discussion. The seminar was very well attended and had encouraged debate and inspired people to document and preserve the remarkable narratives of refugees and the activists and advocates who supported them.
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From left: Trung Nguyen, Rafael Pacheo, Adele Rice, Ali Karimi and Magdalena Kuyang
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