Emma Ashmere

Emma Ashmere’s new short story collection Dreams They Forgot will be published by Wakefield Press on 1st September 2020 – and was listed on the Sydney Morning Herald’s Books to Read in 2020 and Readings Australian Books to Get Excited About 2020.

Available in paperback (and ebook on 1 Sept).

BUY DREAMS THEY FORGOT (RRP AUD $24.95) at your local bookshop or online:

Wakefield Press (Adelaide)

Abbey’s Bookshop (Sydney)

Avid Reader (Brisbane)

Bookroom at Byron (Northern NSW)

Booktopia (Online)

Gleebooks (Sydney)

Readings (Melbourne)

Imprints Bookshop (Adelaide)

Jeffrey’s Books (Melbourne)

Lismore Book Warehouse (Northern NSW)

Matilda Bookshop (Adelaide Hills)

Ravens Parlour (Barossa Valley)

Riverbend Books (Brisbane)

Wheelers Books (Online)

Dymocks Books (Online)

*Also e-book available 1 Sept. Please note – prices vary on Book Depository,  Fishpond,  Amazon etc.*

*Fishpond

*Book Depository

*Amazon

Praise for DREAMS THEY FORGOT

“Emma Ashmere’s characters are luminescent. These stories drew me into people and worlds so vivid they practically lived on the page.”  — ANNA SPARGO-RYAN, author of The Gulf, and The Paper House.

‘Ashmere’s writing is full of quick insights and telling details. These stories move effortlessly through place and time, entering lives on the point of transgression. It’s an absolute pleasure to travel with them.’ — JENNIFER MILLS, author of Dyschronia, The Rest is Weight, and The Diamond Anchor. 

‘Stories of extraordinary range and depth. Deeply engaging and satisfying.’ — PADDY O’REILLY, author of Peripheral Vision, The End of the World, The Wonders.

REVIEWS

‘The tagline on the title page of Emma Ashmere’s Dreams They Forgot is ‘stories of illusion, deception and quiet rebellion’. This is an apt description of the 25 stories that unfold over the 250 pages of this collection… Ashmere’s prose is precise, almost elusive, reading at times like poetry… The deft description, compelling emotion and insightful observations of Dreams They Forgot will appeal to readers of feminist fiction and Australian realism, in particular fans of Dymphna Cusack or Fiona McGregor.— ADAM FORD, BOOKS+PUBLISHING, 15 July 2020.   (See full review below)

“The stories in this strong and varied collection range across urban and rural Australia and beyond, to such touchstones of Australian travel as Bali and London, and to more exotic settings such as Borneo and regional France. Emma Ashmere’s stories are often impressionistic, never laboriously chewing on their material and trusting the intelligence of the reader to join the dots and grasp the underlying feeling. There are some excellent stories about family life, especially those told from the point of view of a semi-comprehending and bemused child or adolescent. But Ashmere’s greatest strength is in her stories of the historical past, especially in Australia. These stories acknowledge the limits of what is knowable to contemporary readers, evoking instead the unrecoverable strangeness and mystery of the past.” — KERRYN GOLDSWORTHY, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/AGE, 5 Sep 2020.

About DREAMS THEY FORGOT 

Two sisters await the tidal wave predicted for 1970s Adelaide after Premier Don Dunstan decriminalises homosexuality. An interstate family drive is complicated by the father’s memory of sighting UFOs. Two women drive from Melbourne to Sydney to see the Harbour Bridge before it’s finished. An isolated family tries to weather climate change as the Doomsday Clock ticks.

Emma Ashmere’s stories explore illusion, deception and acts of quiet rebellion. Diverse characters travel high and low roads through time and place – from a grand 1860s Adelaide music hall to a dilapidated 1980s London squat, from a modern Melbourne hospital to the 1950s Maralinga test site, to an English Language School in Hastings to the 1990s diamond mines of Borneo.

Undercut with longing and unbelonging, absurdity and tragedy, thwarted plans and fortuitous serendipity, each story offers glimpses into the dreams, limitations, gains and losses of fragmented families, loners and lovers, survivors and misfits, as they piece together a place for themselves in the imperfect mosaic of the natural and unnatural world.

The short stories in Dreams They Forgot have been  shortlisted for the 2019 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Award, 2019 Newcastle Short Story Award, 2018 Overland NUW Fair Australia Prize, and the 2001 Age Short Story Competition. Emma’s critically acclaimed debut novel, The Floating Garden, was shortlisted for the Most Underrated Book Award 2016.

THE COVER

The photograph on the cover ‘Lynne and Carol, 1962’ is the work of the late Melbourne feminist photographer Sue Ford.  See more of her stunning work here.  Thank you to the estate of Sue Ford for kindly granting permission to use her work.

EVENTS

Thurs 24 Sept 6.30pm Online Event Readings Bookshop: Join Emma Ashmere (Dreams They Forgot) and Laura Elvery (Ordinary Matter) talking to publisher/editor Jo Case about their new short story collections. Free zoom event – but you need to register.

Wed 11 November 6.30pm Online Event Feast Festival: Join Emma Ashmere via zoom at Adelaide’s annual Feast LGBTQIA+ Festival to launch her book on Wed 11 November 6.30pm (Adelaide time). More details soon.

BEHIND THE BOOK

Q&A with the Feminist Writers Festival about writing Dreams They Forgot. 

Full review from BOOKS+PUBLISHING

The tagline on the title page of Emma Ashmere’s Dreams They Forgot is ‘stories of illusion, deception and quiet rebellion’. This is an apt description of the 25 stories that unfold over the 250 pages of this collection. Ashmere’s protagonists each use these three strategies in various ways, some subtly and some overtly, to respond to dangerous or indifferent circumstances. From the woman who poisons her drunkard boyfriend with daffodils to the girl who picks out swear words in her chenille bedspread, these responses vary in their efficacy. Ashmere’s prose is precise, almost elusive, reading at times like poetry. It drills down into certain details while leaving others out entirely. This invites the reader to complete the picture by tying together the story elements that Ashmere has chosen to share. These are stories that can provoke a sense of dread in the reader, particularly if read in a single sitting. There is also a current of anger throughout, one justified by the understanding that the traumas and troubles Ashmere’s largely female protagonists face arise out of society’s indifference and antagonism toward them because they are female. The deft description, compelling emotion and insightful observations of Dreams They Forgot will appeal to readers of feminist fiction and Australian realism, in particular fans of Dymphna Cusack or Fiona McGregor.— ADAM FORD, BOOKS+PUBLISHING, July 15 2020.   

More about DREAMS THEY FORGOT here. And in the InDaily.