Steam Pigs

Steam Pigs is the 1997 debut novel by Melissa Lucashenko.^[1] It concerns Sue Wilson, a young Murri woman, who explores her Indigenous identity while living in Brisbane.

AuthorMelissa Lucashenko

LanguageEnglish

GenreNovel

Published1997 (University of Queensland Press)

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Steam Pigs
First edition
Author	Melissa Lucashenko
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Published	1997 (University of Queensland Press)
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	245
ISBN	978-0-702-22935-0
OCLC	1088063432

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Reception

A review in The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education wrote that "Steam Pigs takes us into the world of today's "untermensch" ...",^[2] and that it "..is a woman's book set in a very particular place and at a very particular time; but it confronts themes that are eternal and universal.".^[2] A Lesbians on the Loose review called it "...as unsentimental as it is empathetic.".^[3]

Steam Pigs has also been reviewed by the Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature,^[4] Social Alternatives,^[5] Australian Literary Studies,^[6] Queensland Review,^[7] and Ilha do Desterro.^[8]

An excerpt appears in the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature.^[9]

Awards

1998 Dobbie Literary Award winner^[10]
1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South-East Asia and Pacific Region) – shortlist for Best First Book^[11]
1999 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, shortlist^[11]

References

[1]
"Steam Pigs by Melissa Lucashenko". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
[2]
Sam Watson (December 1999). "Steam Pigs". The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. 27 (2). Cambridge University Press: 56. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
[3]
Sylvia Martin (November 1997). "between the covers". Lesbians on the Loose. Vol. 8, no. 11. Frances Rand, Barbara Farrelly. p. 29. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
[4]
"Exploring Indigenous Identity in Suburbia: Melissa Lucashenko's Steam Pigs". Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. 10. Association for the Study of Australian Literature (Australia). 2010. ISSN 1447-8986. Retrieved 31 August 2021. Although Lucashenko presents the treatment of Indigenous Australians by non-Indigenous Australians in a rather negative manner, she also candidly addresses problems within the Indigenous community, ... In Steam Pigs, Lucashenko explicitly depicts suburbia as co-occupying Indigenous land; she is the first Australian novelist to do so and thus her novel is radical on that count alone.
[5]
Christine Watson (1998). "New Indigenous writing (subscription required)". Social Alternatives: 51–53. ISSN 0155-0306.
[6]
Margaret Henderson (1998). "Subdivisions of Suburbia: the Politics of Place in Melissa Lucashenko's 'Steam Pigs' and Amanda Lohrey's 'Camille's Bread.'". Australian Literary Studies. 1: 72. ISSN 1837-6479.
[7]
Kelly Palmer (2018). "The beach as (hu)man limit in Gold Coast narrative fiction" (PDF). Queensland Review. 25 (1). Cambridge University Press: 149–162. doi:10.1017/qre.2018.13. S2CID 150353497. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
[8]
Carole Ferrier (2016). "Resistance and sovereignty in some recent Australian Indigenous women's novels". Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies. 69 (2). Federal University of Santa Catarina: 17–31. ISSN 0101-4846.
[9]
Nicholas Jose, ed. (2009). "Melissa Lucashenko (b. 1967) From Steam Pigs". Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74175-440-7. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
[10]
"2018 Nita B Kibble Literary Awards For Women Writers: History of Shortlisted Authors - 1998: Dobbie Recipient". perpetual.com.au. Perpetual Limited. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
[11]
"Melissa Lucashenko". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

Reception

Awards

References

Further reading

External links

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