In this collection of new essays from the Liminal & Pantera Press Nonfiction Prize longlist, First Nations writers and writers of colour bend and shift boundaries, query the past and envision new futures. They ask: How do we write or hold our former selves, our ancestries? How does where we come from connect to where we are headed? How do we tell the stories of those who have been diminished or ignored in the writing of history? How do we do justice to the lives they lived, or to the people they were?

From the intricacies of trans becoming, to violences inflicted on stateless peoples, to complex inheritances and the intertwining of tradition, politics and place, this prescient collection challenges singular narratives about the past, offering testimony and prophecy alike.

ESSAYS BY André Dao, Barry Corr, Brandon K. Liew, Elizabeth Flux, Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun, grace ugamay dulawan, Hannah Wu, Hasib Hourani, Hassan Abul, Jon Tjhia, Kasumi Bocrzyk, Lucia Tường Vy Nguyễn, Lou Garcia-Dolnik, Lur Alghurabi, Mykaela Saunders, Ouyang Yu, Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh, Ryan Gustafsson, Suneeta Peres da Costa and Veronica Gorrie

‘Not written for white readers or to industry specifications, uncompromising, non-pandering, filled with love, awash with talent, this collection of sovereign essays sets blisteringly high standards of integrity and originality.’ Maria Tumarkin, author of Axiomatic

‘This is truly an explosive anthology of exciting voices you will be hearing from years from now. Each essay is a marvel in itself, a microcosm of insight and inventiveness; and together they make up the brilliant future of new Australian writing.’ Alice Pung, author of One Hundred Days

‘Against Disappearance is hot with guts. Each startling essay complicates memory in this colony and beyond. When brought together, they present memory and presence as a conversation among those forced to the margins of power, rather than as a canon that any one of us can hold alone. Gracious but without flinching, these essayists interrogate just how we and they come to publicly remember and be remembered.’ Alison Whittaker, author of Blakwork

‘Exciting, fresh, and profound. A diverse collection of First Nations and Writers of Colour, whose stories write underneath, between and above the mainstream to interrogate the nation. This collection will shift the way we think about and read creative nonfiction in the future.’ Jeanine Leane, author of Walk Back Over