Book excerpt: Winner of the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction,The Age Book of the Year Award for Non-fiction, The Dobbie Prize for Best First Book. A lyrical memoir from a first-time author that has won critical acclaim Australia-wide. In the tradition of Drusilla Modjeska's Poppy, Mahood offers an intense and sensitive exploration of identity, familial ties and black/white relations in Australia. Craft For A Dry Lake is a memoir that will touch the hearts and souls of every Australian. In Craft For A Dry Lake Kim Mahood takes us on a lyrical journey to her heartland - travelling with her beloved cattle dog back into the Outback of her youth, seeking to lay to rest her father's ghost but finding herself faced with many of her own.