While in Darkness There Is Light: Idealism and Tragedy on an Australian Commune

Louella Bryant

Dzanc Books, Jun 1, 2013 - Biography & Autobiography - 226 pages

Winner of the 2008 Southwest Writers Nonfiction Award and nominated for the 2008 Library of Virginia Nonfiction Award and the Devil’s Kitchen Nonfiction Award

During the Vietnam War, a group of American friends carved their own path by dropping out of college and traveling to Australia, where they established an agrarian commune called Rosebud Farm. The friends, fueled by idealism and family wealth, committed themselves to farming, fishing, taking great risks, and dealing with the consequences of their choices, among those consequences the tragic death of twenty-four-year-old Charlie Dean.

About the author

Louella Bryant has won numerous awards for her short stories and poems.  She is the author of two young adult historical novels—The Black Bonnet, finalist for the Vermont Book Award, and Father By Blood, winner of the Silver Bay Children’s Literature Award—and a picture book, Two Tracks in the Snow. Bryant teaches creative writing in the Spalding University MFA in writing program in Louisville and mentors young writers at the New England Young Writers Conference at Bread Loaf.  

Bibliographic information

• Title: While in Darkness There Is Light: Idealism and Tragedy on an Australian Commune
• Author: Louella Bryant
• Publisher: Dzanc Books, 2013
• ISBN: 1480425826, 9781480425828
• Length: 226 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General