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Australians in Italy

30 July 2008

Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions will be launched on Tuesday 5 August at 6 pm.

Monash Arts faculty staff and colleagues will speak on Australia's love affair with Italy at the upcoming Melbourne Writers Festival which opens on Friday 22 August, 2008.

The panel -- Dr Ian Britain, Chris Wood, Cynthia Troup and Professor Bill Kent -- will speak on a new book Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions that contains personal accounts of people's experiences in Italy including the history of setting up Monash University's Prato centre.

The book features a number of prominent Australian and Italian writers including Peter Porter, Lisa Clifford, Professor Ros Pesman, Brian Matthews and Rory Steele; and several Monash staff including Associate Professor Euan Heng, Dr Peter Howard, Professor Bill Kent, Cynthia Troup and Dr Jane Drakard.

Australians in Italy co-editor Professor Kent said the book and panel discussion would appeal to armchair and actual travellers interested in all things Italian and the history of Australia's engagement with the wider world, as well as researchers, teachers and students.

"The book analyses the significant cultural exchange between Australia and Italy over recent history," Professor Kent said.

"Even though the era of mass migration is now behind us, the flow still goes on."

"Thousands of Australians have settled in Italy -- artists, intellectuals and academics, business people and retirees and there is also an increasing number of young Italians taking the opportunity to live and study in Australia."

Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions, which is published by Monash ePress, will be launched on Tuesday 5 August at 6 pm at Readings Bookshop in Carlton. To attend, please contact Sarah Cannon: sarah.cannon@lib.monash.edu.au

The panel will feature at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Thursday 28 August at 1.15 pm. For more information on the panel discussion visit the Melbourne Writers Festival website.