‘Whenever I’m asked where I come from and what experiences have shaped the way I write, I think of sand. I come from sand. I am an envoy from the Sand People.’ Robert Drewe.

‘That house you called your childhood home
is gone, a set of units glow like chrome.
They are surrounded by a kind of sand
I can’t recognise’ John Kinsella.

Renowned novelist and creative non-fiction writer, Robert Drewe teams up with internationally acclaimed poet John Kinsella, to explore a common geography in poetry and prose.

Sand is quintessentially Australian. It is a property from which many of our stories, assumptions and geographical reckonings are drawn. For Drewe and Kinsella, it evokes the memories – both personal and cultural – that inspire the writing in this book. Digging into its shifting foundations, the authors use their own lives to explore the importance of sand in the Australian psyche.