Publications

Life Surfing Life Dancing

Life Surfing Life Dancing is about living a healthy happy life. It brings together inspirational writers to discuss their views on wellbeing and health, based not only on their clinical and research roles, but also from their life experiences.

Space Place & Culture

Space Place & Culture explores ways in which we manage our space, our place and our culture, and provides insights for the future. It also features creative writing by young people, winners of Future Leaders writing prizes.

99 & Counting Medical Myths Debunked

How many times have you heard the statement ‘We only use 10% of our brain’ or ‘Chicken soup cures the common cold’? Many ideas about medical problems and general health are passed down through the generations and become firmly embedded, while others have emerged more recently, such as ‘The flu vaccine will give you influenza’. 99 & Counting Medical Myths Debunked seeks to dispel all of these ill-founded notions and explains how the wrong interpretation or conclusions have arisen. This book provides a much-needed antidote to the sage advice family and friends may proffer, through well-researched studies by medical scientists who have taken these medical ‘myths’ and truly debunked them.

More or Less: Democracy & New Media

More Or Less is about democracy, free speech and new media, separately and together. It examines how digital media influences democratic processes, political institutions and modes of political communication and in what ways it is impacting on our lives with respect to freedom of expression, civil society, government transparency and the rule of law. The book also includes first hand and detailed accounts of legal cases, which have had far reaching consequences for individuals and disparate, disadvantaged groups of people. The second part of the book features fine creative writing by young people, winners in the Future Leaders Writing Prize.

Health

Health, written by leading academics and researchers, covers chronic disease, climate change and health, Influenza, health policy, education of doctors, child and adolescent health, indigenous health, ageing and health, mental health, rural health, global health and the control and eradication of malaria from a preventative health perspective. Gandhi’s words remind us that, ‘It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver’.

Future Justice

Future Justice is concerned with what those living today leave behind for future generations. In the first part of the book leading academics and thinkers explore the meaning of future justice and our responsibilities with respect to the environment, Indigenous Australians, refugees, science, human rights education, sexuality, economics, Southeast Asia, a Human Rights Charter, the United Nations and the Australian Constitution. The second part of the book features writing by young people on violent conflict, dementia, identity, death, love, celebrity procreation and climate change.

Climate Change On for Young & Old

This book is about climate change and its increasing threat to human civilization. In the first part, leading Australian academics, environmentalists and thinkers write about the effects and experience of rapid climate change in Australia and globally. In the second part, talented young writers, entrants in the Future Leaders Climate Writing Award, offer a combination of gloomy assessment, despair and hope in looking at the current and potential impacts of climate change. It is clear from the contents of the book that we must move with great speed and effectiveness to secure our future. As Sir Nicholas Stern pointed out, ‘There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now.’

Perspectives

The writing by leading Australian thinkers in the first part of this book looks at fine tuning of our democracy, perspectives about the future and adequately meeting the needs of vulnerable people. In the second part, aspiring talented young writers similarly address a range of societal issues including mental illness, old age, human rights, peace and divorce. These essays, submitted for the Future Leaders Writing Prize, show admirable understanding of the frailty and strength of the human condition.

Issues of Our Time

This book is about significant issues in our society today. It aims to be an accessible resource about these issues and an inspiration for young people engaged in writing about experiences, observations and concerns they feel are important. The first part of the book features writing by leading Australian thinkers who address various issues such as climate change, children, democracy, Indigenous discrimination, higher education, housing, sexuality and bioethics. The second part contains selected essays submitted for the Future Leaders Writers’ Prize and Future Leaders Climate Writing Award in 2007. The writing by talented young Australians covers many issues including depression, racism, homelessness, nuclear waste and the war on terror. The writers’ clarity of thought and analysis and skill in communicating the issues under discussion is cause for much hope.

What Difference Does Writing Make?: Leading Writers on Writing

This is a book about writing. Its aim is to encourage young people to develop their talents as writers and to show in how many different ways writing matters. The first part of the book contains five essays by well known Australian writers. Novelist Alex Miller, playwright Hannie Rayson and poet Dorothy Porter show how creative writing can expand our consciousness, why 'passion and intensity' matter and how engaged writers enter into a free and frank discussion with their moment in history. Indigenous lawyer and novelist Larissa Behrendt and journalist Louise Milligan describe the role of writing in other contexts. The second part of the book contains selected essays submitted for the Future Leaders Writers’ Prize in 2005 and 2006.