Coastlines celebrates the diverse preoccupations of the North Coast region and provides a showcase for writing students at Southern Cross University. We hope to continue to publish it every second year. The cover art came from an image by a post-graduate student in the School of Contemporary Arts. The editorial group received over a hundred submissions from students at three campuses of Southern Cross - Coolangatta, Port Macquarie and Lismore.
All campuses are proportionately well-represented in the published book.
The anthology was launched at the Byron Bay Writers Festival in August 1999, by well-known poet Dorothy Porter, who took the time to compose a brilliant, energetic rave poem incorporating lines and images from contributors' work. It has been widely reviewed in the local press and Murray Waldren, in the Australian , said that its contributions 'have a power, sensitivity and vision lacking in more established writers', with 'energy and verve in abundance'. He also pointed to coastlines as a prime example of the way new writers can become published and known.