Some of these involve risks: the publishing of new approaches to biography and autobiography and the writing of history, and how and where these move together; the form that Aboriginal storytelling and other oral traditions can take in the printed book. The work of Carolyn Polizzotto and the collaborations between Aboriginal storyteller Paddy Roe and linguist Stephen Muecke are examples of success in new areas.

The substantial program of anthology publishing, both historical surveys and particularly contemporary work, has given good representation and exposure to many writers and their works in progress that are eventually published by the Press. The list of writers who were first published by FACP, and who have remained with them or moved on, is impressive. It includes Elizabeth Jolley, Marion Campbell, Philip Salom, Joan London, Nicholas Hasluck. For the past couple of years, the Press has had its distribution handled throughout Australia by the massive Penguin Books (Australia) operation, which has made a great difference to the visibility of both the Press and many writers.

All this on the other side of where things happen – the lack of coverage by the only daily newspaper in Perth is, then, a sorry tale to tell. While the Press received good coverage from most of Australia’s other newspapers, the West Australian went for fifteen months not so long ago without reviewing a single title.

For 1990, the publication output increases from twelve titles to eighteen titles a year. The structure of the Press has recently altered, with the resignation of Ian Templeman as Director of the Fremantle Arts Centre and Chief Executive of the Press and with the redefinition of the managerial roles of Clive Newman and Ray Coffey.

Of course, having the monopoly on (generously funded) arts publishing in the State has made for animosity and claims about money being wasted. Perth is a small city; stories circulate swiftly and effectively. Bad feeling inevitably returns to the source of the discontent and back out into the community. In the past, other publishers have sought funding and been rejected, notably, Helen Weller’s Artlook Books. It was a saga that ran from the seventies through into the eighties and precipitated a slanging match that was so bitter there are still traces evident now.

The claims made against the FACP were of favouritism and privilege. A counter argument used was that funding was directed towards the organisation that offered a substantial knowledge and expertise in the field, with a sense of the movement and makeup of the constituency it attempts to represent. There is never enough money in arts funding to go around, and some ventures have a better chance, by their nature or by the means with which they attract other revenue or material, at succeeding in the open market.

The other publishing ventures are particularly specialised or quirky. The University of WA Press publishes academic titles and recently, with the backing of a private trust fund, the South West Region Publications Fund, has begun scholarly research in any discipline relevant to the South West. Hesperian Press publishes mostly facsimile editions of books on the mining industry, with the occasional book of memoirs. Veritas Publishing Company has the strangest list, a voluminous and international one that covers every conspiracy theory imaginable, revisionist history, and political dogma.

The actual product of the Fremantle Arts Centre Press is rarely criticised, except via charges of elitism and favouritism that are levelled at its power base. It is this privilege of being the sole government funded press that gets on everyone’s goat. Under the weight of innuendo and bitterness, the State’s Department for the Arts commissioned the poet Bryn Griffiths to write a report on the need for an alternative publishing house in WA. Griffiths has been an outspoken critic of the Press, and the report attempted to identify the weak points of the organisation and the writing community that has been disenfranchised by its direction and mechanics. The report missed the point; its decidedly vituperative tone closed off the argument and the models it offered as ‘alternative publishers’ were not appropriate to the needs of this place, to fill in the gaps that are obviously there.

Griffiths and his colleagues, including the writer T.A.G. Hungerford and Ray White from Veritas Publishing, are now putting their money where their dissatisfaction lies. They are working at establishing an alternative press, Platypus, through which they hope to provide a support structure and outlet for the many WA writers who don’t get a guernsey elsewhere. With ‘unbridled Celtic enthusiasm’ Bryn Griffiths and company plan on ‘taking poetry back to the people’, with a press that will concentrate on publishing poetry and covering the areas of writing not represented within FACP’s policy.

The first title, Wharfies, funded by the Waterside Workers Union and written by Griffiths, a stalwart of working class writing, has recently been released and they are working towards their following two titles that will enable them to apply for Literature Board funding. Editorial advisers for the press include the poets Glen Phillips and Anthony Lawrence. There is dearly a need for this sort of balance to be found, where grassroots writers can be represented in print with their own books, and recognition and progression occur through a working process.

As well as the big name writers with published books and wide recognition, there is a robust literary scene in Perth these days, with public events and writing activities by groups and centres. Between April and November, you would be hard pressed to attend every reading or performance between Perth and Fremantle and beyond. The scope of the readings, too, is broad, from experimentation and self-consciously ‘literary’ work to pub poetry and a free-for-all approach. There is good coverage on public radio, particularly the University radio station 6AVS-FM, with regular programming that highlights Perth writers and activities. Creative writing programmes are offered at two of the Universities – at Curtin the programme has been running for more than a decade.

The Festival of Perth organises a biennial Writers Week which usually imports an array of writers and gives a specific focus for discussion. This is an important opportunity for meeting writers, an infrequent happening in Perth, but so far it has not been promoted well enough to attract steady audiences.

The key element that is missing from this fertile environment is the magazine as outlet for writings in progress, as the ultimate testing ground for new writers to identify strengths and weaknesses in print and as an ongoing forum for writers and writing. Bruce Pascoe, editor of Australian Short Stories, has claimed that he could fill every quarterly issue with unsolicited work from WA. I’m sure that this observation fits for every state in Australia because of the sheer number of writers, but the problem is exacerbated by the lack of outlets in Perth.

The only current magazine is Westerly which, predictably, receives more good work than it can use. The Fremantle Arts Review publishes each month a couple of pages, mostly poetry with the occasional short story. The West Australian published four short stories as their holiday reading feature, but this was the first time in decades. They publish one poem each Saturday in their book pages, but in a gratuitous and sloppy manner, with little benefit to the poet. And that’s it.

Thankfully, in the pipeline after years of discussion are two literary publications that have the potential to redress these shortcomings. The Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation, a writers’ centre that is run as an information and resource centre in the writer’s former home, intends to start a magazine in 1990. The poet John Kinsella is in the process of putting together the first issue of a magazine of poetry, prose, and reviews for the first half of the year. These projects should offer the chance for writers across the range of styles and approaches to get their work in print.

As the opportunities broaden out, the grievances lessen – with more writers seeing their writing in print and the stylistic diversity of the West being developed space.