Steam Pigs

{{short description|1997 debut novel by Melissa Lucashenko}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Use Australian English|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox book  | name = Steam Pigs | image = File:Steam Pigs (cover).jpg | caption = First edition | author = Melissa Lucashenko | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Australia | language = English | genre = Novel | published = 1997 (University of Queensland Press) | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 245 | isbn = 978-0-702-22935-0 | oclc = 1088063432 }}

'''''Steam Pigs''''' is the 1997 debut novel by Melissa Lucashenko.<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Steam Pigs'' by Melissa Lucashenko|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/63821 |access-date= 11 December 2024}}</ref> It concerns Sue Wilson, a young Murri woman, who explores her Indigenous identity while living in Brisbane.

==Reception== A review in ''The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education'' wrote that "''Steam Pigs'' takes us into the world of today's "untermensch" ...",<ref name=AJIE082021/> and that it "..is a woman's book set in a very particular place and at a very particular time; but it confronts themes that are eternal and universal.".<ref name=AJIE082021>{{cite journal |date=December 1999 |title=Steam Pigs |author=Sam Watson |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-indigenous-education/article/abs/steam-pigs-melissa-lucashenko-published-by-university-of-queensland-press-st-lucia-australia-1997/21EED6F95DD9528D64BF8A612C8B4170 |journal=The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=27 |issue=2 |page=56 |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref> A ''Lesbians on the Loose'' review called it "...as unsentimental as it is empathetic.".<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Sylvia Martin |date=November 1997 |title=between the covers |page=29 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1105427072/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1113785422&partId=nla.obj-1105576574#page/n28/mode/1up |magazine=Lesbians on the Loose |volume=8 |issue=11 |publisher=Frances Rand, Barbara Farrelly |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref>

''Steam Pigs'' has also been reviewed by the ''Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature'',<ref>{{cite journal |year=2010 |title=Exploring Indigenous Identity in Suburbia: Melissa Lucashenko's Steam Pigs |url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/issue/view/764/showToc |journal=Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature |quote=Although Lucashenko presents the treatment of Indigenous Australians by non-Indigenous Australians in a rather negative manner, she also candidly addresses problems within the Indigenous community, ... In Steam Pigs, Lucashenko explicitly depicts suburbia as co-occupying Indigenous land; she is the first Australian novelist to do so and thus her novel is radical on that count alone. |publisher=Association for the Study of Australian Literature (Australia) |volume=10 |issn=1447-8986 |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref> ''Social Alternatives'',<ref>{{cite journal |date=1998 |title=New Indigenous writing (subscription required) |author=Christine Watson |journal=Social Alternatives |volume= |issue= |pages=51–53 |issn=0155-0306 }}</ref> ''Australian Literary Studies'',<ref>{{cite journal |year=1998 |title=Subdivisions of Suburbia: the Politics of Place in Melissa Lucashenko's 'Steam Pigs' and Amanda Lohrey's 'Camille's Bread.'. |author=Margaret Henderson |journal=Australian Literary Studies |issn=1837-6479 |volume=1 |pages=72}}</ref> ''Queensland Review'',<ref>{{cite journal |year=2018 |title=The beach as (hu)man limit in Gold Coast narrative fiction |author=Kelly Palmer |url=https://eprints.qut.edu.au/127906/1/beach_as_human_limit_in_gold_coast_narrative_fiction.pdf |journal=Queensland Review |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=149–162 |doi=10.1017/qre.2018.13 |s2cid=150353497 |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref> and ''Ilha do Desterro''.<ref>{{cite journal |year=2016 |title=Resistance and sovereignty in some recent Australian Indigenous women's novels |author=Carole Ferrier |journal=Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies |issn=0101-4846 |publisher=Federal University of Santa Catarina |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=17–31}}</ref>

An excerpt appears in the ''Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature''.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://macquariepenanthology.com.au/aust_toc.html |title=Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature |chapter=Melissa Lucashenko (b. 1967) From ''Steam Pigs'' |pages= |editor=Nicholas Jose |year=2009 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-1-74175-440-7 |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref>

==Awards== * 1998 Dobbie Literary Award winner<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perpetual.com.au/~/media/perpetual/pdf/resources/2018-winner-shortlist-flyer.ashx?la=en |title=2018 Nita B Kibble Literary Awards For Women Writers: History of Shortlisted Authors - 1998: Dobbie Recipient |website=perpetual.com.au |publisher=Perpetual Limited |accessdate=31 August 2021}}</ref> * 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South-East Asia and Pacific Region) – shortlist for Best First Book<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|title=Melissa Lucashenko|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A20994?mainTabTemplate=agentAwards|access-date=2021-08-31|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}}</ref> * 1999 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, shortlist<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book |title=Exploring Suburbia: The Suburbs in the Contemporary Australian Novel |chapter=A New Generation Perpetuates the Anti-Suburban Tradition: Melissa Lucashenko's ''Steam Pigs'' (1997) and A. L. McCann's ''Subtopia'' (2005) |pages= |author=Nathanael O'Reilly |year=2012 |publisher=Teneo Press |isbn=978-1934-8-4494-6 }}

==External links== * [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1088063432 Library holdings of ''Steam Pigs''] * [https://vuir.vu.edu.au/32981/1/Re-writing%20Indigeneity,%20Questioning%20Postcoloniality%20-%20Maryanne%20Twomey%20nosignature.pdf "Re-writing Indigeneity, Questioning Postcoloniality", Maryanne Twomey (2003) - thesis that includes a study of ''Steam Pigs'']

Category:1997 Australian novels Category:1997 English-language novels Category:1997 debut novels Category:Novels set in Brisbane Category:Indigenous Australian literature Category:University of Queensland Press books