Book launch: Righting My World by Dennis Altman (Gleebooks)

In conversation with Anne Summers

A collection of writings over the past half-century from the acclaimed professor of politics and gay rights activist.

From the inauguration of Richard Nixon to Trump’s America, from Gay Liberation to the AIDS crisis and beyond, Dennis Altman has been both a participant in the changing times and an acute observer. The publication of Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation in 1971 heralded his arrival as an exciting new voice in the movement for gay rights and in Australian writing. And alongside his longer works, Altman has honed his craft and vision in literary journals, the queer press, academic forums and daily newspapers.
This collection captures the sense of Australia and the wider world as it was and as it is, charting the course of a conversation about civil rights and cultural change, while at the same time highlighting the persistence of prejudice and the value of art. Interspersed with personal essays reflecting on Altman’s cultural heritage, grief and ageing, Righting My World is a powerful and illuminating chronicle.

Dennis Altman AM is the author of numerous books, including Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, which has been described as the first serious analysis to emerge from the gay liberation movement. He is a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Human Security at La Trobe University. In 2008, Dennis was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for service to education as an academic, social and political commentator, to the community through raising awareness of human-rights issues and to the development of HIV/AIDS policy. He is a patron of the Australian Queer Archives and the Pride Foundation.

Dr Anne Summers AO is a journalist, commentator and best-selling author of nine books, including the classic Damned Whores and God’s Police, first published in 1975, and still in print. Her most recent book Unfettered and Alive, a memoir, was published in 2018. Anne was recently appointed Professor of Domestic and Family Violence in the School of Business at the University of Technology of Sydney. She has been awarded substantial funding by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and UTS to continue her innovative data-based research into domestic violence in Australia. Her recent report The Choice: violence or poverty (2022) used previously unpublished ABS data to reveal the far greater prevalence of domestic violence than was previously known, and especially the shockingly high incidence among women who have become single mothers as a result.

Previously, Anne has advised Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, run the Office of the Status of Women, been Canberra Bureau Chief for the Australian Financial Review newspaper, been editor-in-chief of America’s leading feminist magazine Ms., editor of Good Weekend, chair of the Board of Greenpeace International and a Trustee of the Powerhouse Museum. She has been an activist in the women’s movement since its inception and in 1974 was involved in establishing Elsie Women’s Refuge the first modern shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence.

She was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for her services to journalism and to women in 1989; had her image on a postage stamp as an Australian Legend in 2011 and in 2017 was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.