Jennifer Down on ‘Bodies of Light’
Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Jennifer Down's third book Bodies of Light (Text, October) follows protagonist Maggie as she reluctantly revisits a past she's fought to keep buried. Reviewer Jacqui Davies says 'despite its bleak...
Reps off the road: Mandy Wildsmith on repping during lockdown
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
While the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, some semblance of normality is on the horizon. Here, Mandy Wildsmith from Hardie Grant Books reflects on the past year of life...
Cat Rabbit on ‘How to Make Friends: A Bear’s Guide’
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
Cat Rabbit is a textile artist and designer based in Melbourne. In her latest picture book, How to Make Friends: A Bear's Guide (Berbay, October), Rabbit explores the struggles of...
Diana Reid on ‘Love & Virtue’
Wednesday, 28 July 2021
Diana Reid's debut novel Love & Virtue (Ultimo, October) explores feminism, power and sex through the lives of two young women at an Australian university. Reviewer Georgia Brough calls Love &...
Annie Raser-Rowland on ‘Let’s Eat Weeds!’
Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Annie Raser-Rowland is a Melbourne-based horticulturalist and artist. She is the co-author (with Adam Grubb) of Let's Eat Weeds (Scribble, September), a guidebook for young readers on which weeds are...
Max Easton on ‘The Magpie Wing’
Wednesday, 14 July 2021
The Magpie Wing (Giramondo, September) is Max Easton's first book of fiction. Set in western Sydney, the novel follows the relationships between three young adults as they explore subcultures and identities. Reviewer...
Poppy Nwosu on ‘Road Tripping with Pearl Nash’
Wednesday, 7 July 2021
Road Tripping with Pearl Nash (Wakefield, September) is Poppy Nwosu's third romantic novel for young adults. It follows protagonist Pearl Nash on a road trip during the summer holidays before...
Annie Smithers on ‘Recipe for a Kinder Life’
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Chef, cookbook author and writer Annie Smithers's Recipe for a Kinder Life (Thames & Hudson, August) blends memoir, philosophy and practical tips on sustainability based on the author's experience running...
Malla Nunn on ‘Sugar Town Queens’
Wednesday, 9 June 2021
Malla Nunn's Sugar Town Queens (A&U, August) is a young adult novel set in Sugar Town, South Africa. This coming-of-age story follows 15-year-old Amandla as she uncovers her family history and...
Zoe Deleuil on ‘The Night Village’
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
In Zoe Deleuil's debut novel The Night Village (Fremantle Press, August), a brief relationship and an unexpected pregnancy see Australian expat Simone suddenly living with a new baby in her...
Amani Haydar on ‘The Mother Wound’
Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Artist, writer and lawyer Amani Haydar's father murdered her mother in 2015, while Haydar was pregnant with her first child. The Mother Wound (Macmillan, July), Haydar's debut memoir, is an...
Andrew Paterson on ‘Rainfish’
Tuesday, 11 May 2021
Andrew Paterson's debut middle-grade novel Rainfish (Text, July) won the 2020 Text Prize. Set in Far North Queensland, the book follows narrator Aaron, who breaks the law to impress an...
Sophie Overett on ‘The Rabbits’
Wednesday, 5 May 2021
Sophie Overett's debut novel The Rabbits (Vintage, July), winner the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize, is a magic realist family saga centred around Delia Rabbit, a mother dealing with trauma from her...
Cameron Nunn on ‘Echo in the Memory’
Wednesday, 28 April 2021
The historical YA novel Echo in the Memory (Walker, June) took author Cameron Nunn 10 years and a PhD in the history of child convicts to write. The book features...
Lisa Emanuel on ‘The Covered Wife’
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
Lisa Emanuel's 2019 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award–shortlisted debut The Covered Wife (Pantera, June) centres on Sarah, a lawyer whose new relationship leads to involvement with an oppressive and...
Alice Pung on ‘One Hundred Days’
Wednesday, 7 April 2021
One Hundred Days (Black Inc., June), Alice Pung's first novel for adults, is described as a fractured fairytale about 16-year-old Karuna, who is locked in her family's housing commission flat...
Shirley Marr on ‘A Glasshouse of Stars’
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Perth author Shirley Marr's fourth children's book, A Glasshouse of Stars (Puffin, May), is a semi-autobiographical middle-grade novel inspired by Marr's experiences growing up as a first-generation Chinese–Australian migrant. Reviewer...
Anita Heiss on ‘Bila Yarrudangga-langdhuray’
Tuesday, 23 March 2021
Anita Heiss's new historical novel Bila Yarrudanggalangdhuray (S&S, May), the first Australian commercial fiction release to feature the title on the cover solely in an Aboriginal language, follows protagonist Wagadhaany,...
Jacqueline Bublitz on ‘Before You Knew My Name’
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Jacqueline Bublitz's debut novel Before You Knew My Name (A&U, May) takes the crime fiction trope of a jogger discovering a dead body and turns it on its head. Bublitz's novel...
Krissy Kneen on ‘The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen’
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
In Krissy Kneen's new memoir The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen (Text, May), the death of her beloved grandmother is the catalyst for the excavation of long-buried family history, taking Kneen—and the...
Sara Haghdoosti on ‘Sunburnt Veils’
Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Sara Haghdoosti's debut YA novel Sunburnt Veils (Wakefield, April) follows protagonist Tara as she navigates relationships, racism and political activism during her first year of university. Reviewer Mischa Parkee said...
Book it in: 2021 children’s and YA preview
Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Alongside a slate of new books by established children’s authors, next year looks to be a year of firsts, featuring books by debut authors, established authors trying their hands at...
A new leaf: 2021 nonfiction preview
Wednesday, 11 November 2020
The first year of the new decade has been chaotic and unpredictable. However, readers can try to make sense of the year that's been with the many forthcoming releases that...
Turn the page: 2021 fiction preview
Thursday, 5 November 2020
Next year looks to be a big one for first-time authors, with an abundance of fiction debuts in the pipeline. Here, Books+Publishing rounds up publishers’ fiction highlights for the coming year....
Caravan of dreams: Kerry Ridley on My Little Bookshop
Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Kerry Ridley is the owner of My Little Bookshop, a mobile bookseller that travels around Perth and regional Western Australia. Here she shares her bookseller's diary. The idea of starting...
‘Changes start small’: Behind the union push at PRH
Wednesday, 5 February 2020
Elena Gomez was part of a core team of editorial and publicity staff at Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) who initiated collective bargaining with their employer last year, resulting in...
What we’ll be reading in 2020
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Books+Publishing editors Sarah Farquharson and Kelsey Oldham share the books they're most looking forward to reading in 2020. Sarah Farquharson: Like many others, I was beside myself to learn that...
Book bites: Starting 2020 on the right note
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Mischa Parkee, teacher and children’s specialist at Sydney’s Better Read Than Dead, shares her top children's picks for the new year. What better way to bring in the new year...
Marketing to the gatekeepers: Karys McEwen on marketing books for young people
Wednesday, 20 November 2019
In her final column for Junior, Karys McEwen explores what works (and what doesn’t) when marketing children’s literature to the people actually purchasing books—adults. When it comes to marketing literature to...
New decade, new nonfiction: 2020 nonfiction preview
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
New books by Bruce Pascoe, Julia Baird, Melissa Davey and Miranda Tapsell are among next year’s most anticipated releases. Sarah Farquharson rounds up the best locally authored nonfiction to look...
