Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Interview >

Kay Kerr on “Might Cry Later” 

Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Queensland-based author Kay Kerr made her debut with Please Don’t Hug Me (Text, 2020), followed by Social Queue (Text, 2021). Her latest release, Might Cry Later (Macmillan, November), marks her...

Sarah Brill on ‘Catch’ 

Tuesday, 5 August 2025
Sydney-based author Sarah Brill's Catch (A&U Children’s, October) is a ‘heartfelt and quietly thrilling coming-of-age novel’ about a 16-year-old who discovers she can catch people falling from the sky. Brill...

Zoë Rankin on ‘The Vanishing Place’ 

Tuesday, 22 July 2025
Zoë Rankin’s ‘near-flawless’ debut, The Vanishing Place (Moa Press, September), is described by Books+Publishing reviewer Tara Lee as ‘a sad girl novel wrapped in a family saga and delivered as...

Amelia Mellor on ‘The Wicked Ship’ 

Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Melbourne-based author Amelia Mellor’s new middle-grade adventure series, Oceanforged, launches with The Wicked Ship (Affirm, August), a 'rollicking mix of Treasure Island and The Sword in the Stone with a...

Olivia De Zilva on ‘Plastic Budgie’ 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Tarndanya/Adelaide-based writer Olivia De Zilva’s debut, Plastic Budgie (Pink Shorts Press, August), is described as a ‘sharply funny, sad and sentimental reflection on the people, places and cultural forces that...

Emma Pei Yin on ‘When Sleeping Women Wake’ 

Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Canberra-based, British-born Hong Kong-Chinese writer and editor Emma Pei Yin’s debut novel, When Sleeping Women Wake (Hachette, July), is set in 1940s Hong Kong and follows three women whose lives...

Jasmin McGaughey on ‘Moonlight and Dust’ 

a portrait of Jasmin McGaughey Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Jasmin McGaughey is a Torres Strait Islander and African American author and editor, and the writer behind Ash Barty’s Little Ash series. Her new young adult novel, Moonlight and Dust...

Marija Peričić on ‘Foreign Country’ 

Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Marija Peričić’s first novel, The Lost Pages (A&U), won the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award in 2017. Her ‘lyrical and haunting’ third novel, Foreign Country (Ultimo, July) is a work ‘vivid and...

Thomas Vowles on ‘Our New Gods’ 

Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Melbourne-based screenwriter and author Thomas Vowles makes his novel debut with Our New Gods (UQP, June), a ‘twisty and menacing’ psychological literary thriller set in Melbourne’s queer scene that is...

Laura Elvery on ‘Nightingale’ 

Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Brisbane-based writer Laura Elvery (Ordinary Matter) makes her novel debut with Nightingale (UQP, May), a fictional reimagining of the life of Florence Nightingale. Books+Publishing reviewer Kate Dunphy describes it as...

Jessica Stanley on ‘Consider Yourself Kissed’ 

Tuesday, 18 February 2025
London-based Australian writer Jessica Stanley (A Great Hope) returns with Consider Yourself Kissed (Text, April), a compelling novel about love, identity and modern motherhood. Books+Publishing reviewer Emily Westmoreland calls it...

Fiona Hardy on ‘Unbury the Dead’ 

Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Melbourne writer, bookseller, and reviewer Fiona Hardy is known for her children’s books, including the CBCA Notable How to Make a Movie in 12 Days. Now, she makes her adult...

Diana Reid on ‘Signs of Damage’ 

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Diana Reid follows her bestselling novels Love & Virtue and Seeing Other People with her highly anticipated third novel, Signs of Damage (March, Ultimo), which ‘will appeal to fans of...

Kate Kemp on ‘The Grapevine’ 

Tuesday, 10 December 2024
Kate Kemp’s debut, The Grapevine (Hachette, February 2025), unravels the mystery of a murder in 1970s Canberra, revealing hidden secrets and buried tensions within the close-knit community of Warrah Place....

Karina May on ‘That Island Feeling’ 

Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Karina May is an avid romance reader and journalist turned author of ‘lively love stories for wanderlusters’, including Never Ever Forever and Duck à l’Orange for Breakfast. Her fourth novel, That...

Sophie Clark on ‘Cruel Is the Light’ 

Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Tasmanian-based author Sophie Clark went from working for the Australian Senate to being a member of the Pitch Wars class of 2021. Her debut novel, Cruel Is the Light (Penguin,...

Ali Gripper on ‘Saltwater Cure’ 

Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Sydney-based, award-winning journalist Ali Gripper has contributed features to some of Australia's leading newspapers and magazines. Her first biography, The Barefoot Surgeon (A&U, 2018), told the story of Nepalese eye...

Sophie Beer on ‘Thunderhead’ 

Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Prolific illustrator Sophie Beer’s debut middle-grade novel, Thunderhead (November, A&U Children’s), was inspired by her own experience with a brain tumour that resulted in hearing loss. Books+Publishing reviewer Clare Millar...

Inga Simpson on ‘The Thinning’ 

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
Novelist and nature writer Inga Simpson's sixth novel, The Thinning (November 2024, Hachette), imagines a potential future through an astronomical lens. Books+Publishing reviewer Ana Brawls describes the book as 'an...

Shannon Martinez on ‘Vegan Italian Food’ 

Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Chef and restaurateur Shannon Martinez is a pioneer in her industry, bringing vegan cooking to the masses through her books and restaurants, including Smith + Daughters. Her latest cookbook, Vegan...

Michelle de Kretser on ‘Theory & Practice’ 

Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Two-time Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser’s latest novel, Theory & Practice (November 2024, Text), is a combination of fiction, memoir and essay set in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1986....

David Dyer on ‘This Kingdom of Dust’ 

Tuesday, 27 August 2024
David Dyer’s debut novel, The Midnight Watch (Penguin, 2016), focused on the ship that witnessed the Titanic’s distress rockets but failed to respond. His sophomore novel, This Kingdom of Dust...

Rochelle Siemienowicz on ‘Double Happiness’ 

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Rochelle Siemienowicz is a Melbourne-based author, journalist and film critic. Her debut fiction novel, Double Happiness (MidnightSun, October 2024), ‘explores the intricacies, challenges and taboos surrounding polyamory and ethical non-monogamy’, according...

Hasib Hourani on ‘rock flight’ 

Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, arts worker and educator living on Wangal Country in Sydney. His debut book, rock flight (Giramondo, September 2024), is a 'structurally experimental long-form poem...

Tigest Girma on ‘Immortal Dark’ 

Tuesday, 23 July 2024
Tigest Girma, an Ethiopian writer and teacher based in Melbourne, draws richly from East African history and cultures and blends Black stories with dark and fantastical elements. Books+Publishing reviewer Stefen...