Sarah Krasnostein – författare

Mental illness is the great isolator - and the great unifier. Almost half of us will suffer from it at some point in our lives; it affects everybody in one way or another. Yet today Australia's mental health system is under stress and not fit for purpose, and the pandemic is only making things worse. What is to be done?

In this brilliant mix of portraiture and analysis, Sarah Krasnostein tells the stories of three women and their treatment by the state while at their most unwell. What do their experiences tell us about the likelihood of institutional and cultural change? Krasnostein argues that we live in a society that often punishes vulnerability, but shows we have the resources to mend a broken system. But do we have the will to do so, or must the patterns of the past persist into the future?

"In our conception of government, and our willingness to fund it, we are closer to the Nordic countries than to America. However, we're trending towards the latter with a new story of Australia. The moral of this new story is freedom over equality, and one freedom above all - the freedom to be unbothered by others' needs. However, as we continue to saw ourselves off our perch, mental health might be the great unifier that climate change and the pandemic aren't." Sarah Krasnostein, Not Waving, Drowning

This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 84, The Reckoning, from Gina Rushton & Hannah Ryan, Amber Schultz, Malcolm Knox, Janet Albrechtsen, Kieran Pender, Sara Dowse, Nareen Young, and Jess Hill

Exploring dislocation and longing, Sarah Krasnostein dives into Peter Carey''s literary tour de force, True History of the Kelly Gang, in this latest offering from the stunning Writers on Writers essay series.

Award-winning writer Sarah Krasnostein shines new light on the impossibly vulnerable Ned Kelly of Peter Carey''s True History of the Kelly Gang. Carey, who moved from Australia to America, conjured Kelly after seeing Sidney Nolan''s paintings of the bushranger at the Met. In this moving essay Krasnostein, who moved from America to Australia, interrogates notions of home, history, distance and identity in Peter Carey''s Booker Prize–winning novel.

In the Writers on Writers series, leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work.

Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.