ABR SIDNEY MYER FUND FELLOWSHIP ESSAY

'SWEEPING UP THE ASHES'

Major new article on personal archives from the current ABR Sidney Myer Fund
Fellow


In 'Sweeping up the Ashes', Rachel Buchanan - recipient of the ABR
Sidney Myer Fund Fellowship - investigates the politics and purposes of
collecting personal papers at a time when writers, collectors, and
institutions are caught between the mystique and permanence of material made
by hand and the banality and fragility of machine-made works. 


From Peter Carey's laptop to Patrick White's desk, from Nick Cave's Berlin
notebooks to Stephanie Alexander's fan mail, public and private collections
of personal papers and objects contain precious evidence about the lives of
their creators. But what is the outlook for personal papers as creators move
from analogue to digital modes? What is the future of the past in a digital
era? And should we preserve and esteem a broader range of archives than we
presently do? 


Rachel Buchanan, a journalist and historian, is the author of The Parihaka
Album: Lest We Forget (2009) and an honorary research fellow in the School
of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University. The Australian Book
Review Patrons' Fellowships, funded by ABR Patrons or philanthropic
foundations such as the Sidney Myer Fund, are intended to generate fine,
incisive writing and to broaden the magazine's content. ABR will present two
or three of them each year.

Rachel Buchanan is available for interview.