Gangaroo is the Australian

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

of Austrian publisher ''Gangan Verlag''.

History

In 1989 Gerald Ganglbauer, a young Austrian publisher, arrived in Australia and started collecting Australian

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, experimental prose, and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. Back then

Australian literature Australian literature is the literature, written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Australia, Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western culture, Western history, Australia was a ...

was largely unknown in German speaking countries, and he had the ambition to change that with ''Gangaroo'' (a coinage of the words ''Ganglbauer'' and ''kangaroo''), the imprint of now Sydney based small press ''Gangan Books Austr(al)ia''. Together with Bernard Cohen, Rudi Krausmann and

Michael Wilding Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...

, he created ''The OZlit Collection'' in three volumes: Vol. 1: ''Air Mail from Down Under'' (Short Stories, translated into German), Vol. 2: ''Malevolent Fiction'', was not published in print, but online (in parts) and Vol. 3: ''Made in Australia'' (Poetry, bilingual English/German). However, in spite of having received good reviews in Germany as well as in Australia, sales were slow, and not even a grant from the

Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

could help the publisher to break even, which put an end to ''The OZlit Collection'' in print. As a consequence, new titles were published online since 1996, and the name changed to ''Gangan Publishing''.

The OZlit Collection

Volume 1

David Malouf at the Goethe-Institute in Sydney

* Rudi Krausmann,

: ''Air Mail from Down Under. Zeitgenössische Literatur Australiens. Short Stories'' 1990, The short stories in ''Air Mail from Down Under'' by

Glenda Adams Glenda Emilie Adams (née Felton; 30 December 1939 – 11 July 2007) was an Australian novelist and short story writer, probably best known as the winner of the 1987 Miles Franklin Award for '' Dancing on Coral''. She was a teacher of creative ...

, Inez Baranay, David Brooks, Peter Carey,

Helen Garner Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's debut novel, first novel, ''Monkey Grip (novel), Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her ...

Kate Grenville Catherine Elizabeth Grenville (born 1950) is an Australian author. She has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Prize for ...

Kris Hemensley Kris Alan Hemensley (born 26 April 1946) is an English-Australian poet who has published around 20 collections of poetry. Through the late 1960s and '70s he was involved in poetry workshops at La Mama, and edited the literary magazines '' Our ...

, Nick Jose, Rudi Krausmann,

David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...

Frank Moorhouse Frank Thomas Moorhouse (21 December 1938 – 26 June 2022) was an Australian writer who won major national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France and t ...

Gerald Murnane Gerald Murnane (born 25 February 1939) is an Australian novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Perhaps best known for his 1982 novel ''The Plains'', he has won acclaim for his distinctive prose and exploration of memory, identity and ...

Oodgeroo Noonuccal Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( ; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker (3 November 192016 September 1993) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for ...

Janette Turner Hospital Janette Turner Hospital (née Turner) (born 1942) is an Australian-born novelist and short story writer who has lived most of her adult life in Canada or the United States, principally Boston (Massachusetts), Kingston (Ontario) and Columbia (So ...

Vicki Viidikas Vicki Viidikas (25 September 1948 – 27 November 1998) was a twentieth-century Australian poet and prose writer. Her first poem, ''At East Balmain,'' was published when she was 19 years old. Her poetry, fiction and drawings were published in ...

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, co ...

, and Renate Yates were translated into the German language by Marc Adrian, Bettina Boss, Gerald Ganglbauer, Bernd und Barbara Hüppauf, Rudi Krausmann, Olaf Reinhardt, and Nic Witton. When Gerald Ganglbauer and Michael Wilding launched the first volume in Vienna, an Austrian newspaper titled their review "More than kangaroos and koalas", and wrote: Gangan Verlag proves with this important new release that Australia's cultural output consists of more than "Crocodile" Dundee and

The Thorn Birds ''The Thorn Birds'' is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda—a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland—the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1915 ...

. The

Falter ''Falter'' () is a weekly Austrian news magazine published in Vienna. History and profile Established in 1977, ''Falter'' is published weekly on Wednesdays. The magazine was founded by Walter Martin Kienreich. The publisher is Falter Verlagsg ...

agreed: As far as literature is concerned, Australia is a largely unknown continent even for an Anglophile.

Volume 2

* Bernard Cohen, Gerald Ganglbauer, Gregory Harvey: ''Malevolent Fiction. Australias Experimental Literature'' (1992) 2017, With ''Malevolent Fiction'' the gap between Volume 1 and 3 is finally closed. Contributions ( Jas H Duke, Paul Hewson / Linda Marie Walker, Ruark Lewis, Chris Mann and Ania Walwicz) have appeared online in the publisher's literary magazine

Gangway A gangway is a passageway through which to enter or leave. Gangway may also refer to: Passageways * Gangway (nautical), a passage between the quarterdeck and the forecastle of a ship, and by extension, a passage through the side of a ship, an ope ...

in 1996.

Volume 3

* Gisela Triesch, Rudi Krausmann: ''Made in Australia. Die Poesie des fünften Kontinents, Australian Poetry Today'' 1994, ''Made in Australia'' is a bilingual English-German edition of selected work by eighty contemporary Australian poets. This literary crowd, and its host of German apparitions, is squeezed into a mere three hundred pages, as a kind of export package. Each poet's name is actually stamped with the familiar, triangular “Australian Made” trade logo. Poetry as merchandise. Please consider. The arrangement of the poets ''Made in Australia'' is by date of birth, beginning with Margaret Diesendorf, who was born in 1912 and died two years ago, and leading up to poets born in 1960. Obviously, preference and available space determined inclusions and omissions, but few readers will dispute that it is a well-balanced, carefully selected anthology. The inclusion, as the last poem, of

Maureen Watson Maureen Watson, also known as "Aunty Maureen" (9 November 1931 – 4 January 2009), was an Aboriginal Australian activist actor, vocalist, writer, musician, and storyteller. Early life and education Maureen Watson was born on 9 November 1931, ...

’s “Stepping Out” with its final “I don’t walk, I strut/ ‘Cause now, I’m liberated” provides a very moving ending. There are no dates alongside her name ''(Unknown, as sometimes the case with Aboriginals having no birth certificates)''.Ralph Elliott: Australian-German links, in: Canberra Times, 2 September 1995
Review of ''Made in Australia''
, retrieved on 2. July 2011. Around 140 selected poems from Australian poets such as Robert Adamson,

Richard Allen Richard, Rick, or Dick Allen may refer to: Artists *Dick Allen (poet) (1939–2017), American poet, literary critic and academic *Richard Allen (abstract artist) (1933–1999), British painter *James Moffat (author) (1922–1993), Canadian-Britis ...

, Bruce Beaver to Banumbir Wongar,

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 196 ...

, and

Fay Zwicky Fay Zwicky (4 July 1933 – 2 July 2017) was an Australian poet, short story writer, critic and academic primarily known for her autobiographical poem ''Kaddish'', which deals with her identity as a Jewish writer. Life Born Julia Fay Rosefield ...

, to name but a few from A to Z were translated into the German language by C. W. Aigner,

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

, Gerhard Fischer, Gerald Ganglbauer, Rudi Krausmann, Michael C. Prusse, Olaf Reinhardt, Isolde Scheidecker, Gisela Triesch, and Volker Wolf.

References

External links

Gangan Verlag’s Website

in:

#1 {{Authority control Book publishing companies of Australia Small press publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1989