DESCRIPTION:
The remarkable stories in Born Into This are eye-opening, razor-sharp, and entertaining, often all at once.
From an Aboriginal ranger trying to instil some pride in wayward urban teens on the harsh islands off the coast of Tasmania, to those scraping by on the margins of white society railroaded into complex and compromised decisions, Adam Thompson presents a powerful indictment of colonialism and racism.
With humour, pathos, and the occasional sly twist, Thompson’s characters confront discrimination, untimely funerals, classroom politics, the ongoing legacy of cultural destruction, and — overhanging all like a discomforting, burgeoning awareness for both black and white Australia — the inexorable disappearance of the remnant natural world.
Adam Thompson is an emerging Aboriginal (pakana) writer from Tasmania, who writes contemporary short fiction. In 2016–17, Adam received writing awards through the Tamar Valley Writers Festival and the Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival. Adam has been awarded a First Nations Fellowship at Varuna – The Writers House, several Arts Tasmania grants, and was one of ten recipients of The Next Chapter initiative through the Wheeler Centre. His debut collection Born Into This was shortlisted for the USQ Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection and the 2021 Age Book of the Year Award.
Further reading:
Read: Sonny, Griffith Review
Review: Born Into This by Adam Thompson review – witty, versatile and thrumming with voice, The Guardian
Prompt:
Think back to a childhood friendship that was important to you and made you the person you are today. Write about this person, describing their features and qualities. Then, as your memories flood you, focus on a specific moment when everything shifted.