Australian fiction and poetry at Frankfurt
Friday, 19 September 2025 Books+Publishing @booksandpublishing
Readers of fiction and poetry will be keen to learn what’s been happening here in Australia through a visit to the Australian stand. Threads of romance and humour weave through this year’s publisher recommendations, as debuts and familiar names meet on the shelves, often travelling through time and space (and not just to get to Europe!).
Drama, mystery and contemplation
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What Kept You? Raaza Jamshed Giramondo July 2025 |
| Giramondo brings Raaza Jamshed’s debut novel, What Kept You? (July 2025), a literary work set between Australia and Pakistan, which ‘speaks to intergenerational female bonds, the experience of migration, and in its transnational outlook, to Australian writing’s place in a global literary discussion’. | |
| When I Am Sixty-Four Debra Adelaide UQP April 2026 |
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| UQP rights and contracts manager Erin Sandiford looks forward to pitching autofictional novel When I Am Sixty-Four, ‘a profound and moving meditation on friendship, memory, and the creative life’ based on the author’s real-life friendship with Gabrielle Carey. ‘Adelaide’s bestselling novel The Household Guide to Dying was published in the UK and US and translated into nine languages and is in screen development, so I am, of course, excited to pitch When I Am Sixty-Four on the back of this widespread international acclaim,’ adds Sandiford. | |
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Life Drawing Emily Lighezzolo UQP March 2026 |
| At UQP, Sandiford also enthuses about Life Drawing, a novel she describes as ‘one of the most arresting debuts I’ve read in years’. ‘It’s bold, intelligent, and deeply resonant – a novel that interrogates the female body not just as subject, but as battleground, canvas, and reclamation. Lighezzolo’s voice is unflinching and poetic, and her exploration of art, desire, and autonomy feels both timeless and urgently contemporary,’ says Sandiford, adding that she especially hopes to share the work with US literary fiction counterparts, given the attacks on women’s and trans and gender diverse people’s bodily autonomy in this location. | |
| The Endling Keely Jobe Scribe April 2026 |
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| Debut novel The Endling (Keely Jobe, Scribe, April 2026) tells of when ‘a feminist utopia crumbles with one impossible birth’, in a ‘wildly funny and wholly original’ story that ‘examines the volatile intersection of community and politics’ through the perspective of Mila, who struggles to hold a divided and dwindling feminist community together as its members ‘begin mysteriously falling pregnant’. The publisher calls the novel ‘a true literary/commercial crossover of the kind so many of us in the industry are eternally searching for’. | |
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Fireweather Miranda Darling Scribe September 2025 |
| Also from Scribe, Thunderhead author Miranda Darling returns (along with her protagonist, Winona Dalloway) with Fireweather (September 2025), which ‘follows Winona as she navigates a city besieged with fire and ash, in the aftermath of her escape from an abusive marriage’. ‘In this looking-glass world, Winona is forced to prove she is a sane, rational human being,’ says the publisher. ‘She seeks solace in the company of plants and animals and begins to imagine an entirely other way of being – one that might make whole her broken heart.’ | |
| Gone Guru Nadine Browne Fremantle September 2026 |
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| In ‘a mystery for book lovers and aspiring writers alike’, Gone Guru (Nadine Browne, Fremantle, September 2026) features literary ‘characters’ including Zadie Smith, Joyce Carol Oates and John Freeman. New York newcomer and aspiring writer Noni investigates the disappearance of her roommate Vincent Maclean ‘aka the guru Moksha’. Says CEO Alex Allan, ‘Anyone who has ever experienced a high-pressure situation combined with jetlag on a major level will immediately relate to Noni.’ | |
| The Minstrels Eva Hornung Text March 2026 |
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Meanwhile, Text Publishing is set to pitch The Minstrels (March 2026) from Prime Minister’s Literary Award winner Eva Hornung. ‘It’s an extraordinary work that is thoughtful, subtly humorous and effortlessly readable,’ says the publisher of the title, which follows Gem Thurston, who returns to her family farm ‘after her father and mother are gone, to make her peace with the land, with [brother] Will, and perhaps even with herself’, in the wake of the trauma that severed her from her relatives.
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In the Name of the Trees Merlinda Bobis Spinifex October 2025 |
| Spinifex brings In the Name of the Trees (Merlinda Bobis, October 2025), a new book from an established author, in which four generations of Filipina women named after trees tell stories ‘because their lives depend on them,’ says the publisher. ‘Their rifts are deep, their heartbreaks more wounding. They tell stories to hide, evade, or make truth bearable. But trees remember. They do not lie.’ | |
Historical tales
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The Society of Literary Marauders Sasha Wasley Pantera March 2026 |
| The Society of Literary Marauders (Sasha Wasley, Pantera, March 2026) arrives at Frankfurt via Australia (the setting of its creation) and Oxford (the setting of its telling), following ‘women from across the Empire […] finding their feet in a male-dominated and traditional environment’, while drawing on issues such as ‘book banning, eugenics and the rightful place of artefacts from around the globe acquired by the British’. Publisher Lex Hirst adds, ‘This is a spellbinding read about a secret society of women at Oxford in the 1930s who take their love of books into their own hands.’ | |
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The Names of a Hare Bernice Barry Fremantle April 2026 |
| In 17th-century Cornwall, a young girl guards a dangerous secret: she can leave her body and fly. Meanwhile, witchfinder Matthew Hopkins sets out to hunt her down, resulting in a meeting that changes the course of history. The Names of a Hare by Bernice Barry is due from Fremantle in April 2026, and CEO Alex Allan describes it as ‘a love story that asks the contemporary reader to think about how neurodiversity might have been explained in a historical setting’. | |
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In the Paris Fashion Sophie Beaumont Ultimo November 2025 |
| Ultimo brings a new title from Sophie Beaumont, In the Paris Fashion (November 2025), ‘which plunges the reader into a world of intrigue set around the enduring appeal of a legendary lost dress’. Publisher Brigid Mullane says, ‘Escapist fiction such as this is always in demand, and this book not only takes the reader to Paris but also explores female friendship across generations with a moving love story at its heart.’ | |
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Flight Anne Vines Interactive Publications May 2025 |
| From Interactive Publications comes Flight (Anne Vines, May 2025), a historical romance set in Australia during World War II, featuring ‘a love triangle between a Melbourne socialite, an American pilot stationed in Melbourne and a love-crossed Tivoli dancer’. | |
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Minoan Footsteps Coleen Clare Spinifex June 2025 |
| Spinifex looks forward to pitching Minoan Footsteps (June 2025), a first novel from Coleen Clare. The publisher says, ‘To have a debut novel at age 80 is something worth celebrating. For it to be a book about travelling through time and space and an unputdownable read is even better.’ The novel follows six women in Crete – four of them visitors to the area – as ‘unexpected memories and experiences burst into the present, where unknown dangers threaten to disrupt an idyllic holiday’. | |
Speculative stories
| The Shadow of the Loom Michael Sala Text June 2026 |
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| From Text Publishing, The Shadow of the Loom (Michael Sala, June 2026) announces the arrival of the new War of the Shroud series, which the publisher deems ‘a breathtaking new fantasy series with an absorbing cast of flawed heroes and heroines’. | |
| The Oath Bronwyn Eley Pantera June 2026 |
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| Those awaiting the follow-up to Bronwyn Eley’s The Rule don’t have much longer to wait, with Pantera pitching its forthcoming sequel – and the concluding title in the Trials of Power duology – The Oath. The publisher assures new readers that ‘this duology covers all the tropes guaranteed to appeal in this genre: enemies to friends to lovers, forbidden love, a love triangle, political intrigue, a morally grey main character, and betrayal.’ | |
| Lefevre’s Dream Shaun Micallef Ultimo March 2026 |
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| In a quirky offering from Ultimo, entertainer Shaun Micallef’s forthcoming novel Lefevre’s Dream (March 2026) ‘tells the origin story of the first real vampire (not Dracula) and his attempts to become human again after tiring of immortality’. Publisher Robert Watkins calls it ‘a page-turning read from one of our funniest – and smartest – writers today’ and recommends the novel ‘for those who love classic satires’. | |
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Separate Worlds Terence S McNamara Inspiring Publishers July 2025 |
| From Inspiring Publishers (via the Australian Self Publishing Group, which is also joining the Australian stand), science fiction novel Separate Worlds (Terence S McNamara, July 2025) opens a forthcoming trilogy, pitched for ‘fans of space operas, complex alliances and high-stakes battles for freedom’, featuring ‘a devastated Earth, an unstoppable alien empire and a reluctant hero fighting not only for survival but to reclaim his identity and destiny’. | |
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A Game of Masquerade Shani Cossins Inspiring Publishers July 2025 |
| Historical speculative fiction work A Game of Masquerade (Shani Cossins, July 2025) also comes from Inspiring Publishers, reimagining the story of serial killer Jack the Ripper with a supernatural bent, ‘as Professor Orlando Delbrotman races against time to stop a terrifying monster without altering history itself’. | |
Poetry collections
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The Rot Evelyn Araluen UQP November 2025 |
| Stella Prize winner Evelyn Araluen returns with The Rot (UQP), ‘a sophomore collection that is just as fierce, lyrical, and uncompromising’ as its predecessor, Dropbear, says Sandiford. ‘I am excited to pitch The Rot at Frankfurt because the world urgently needs this book, and Araluen is a world-class poet who deserves international acclaim.’ | |
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Small Mercies Larry Schwartz Platform August 2023 |
| First published in August 2023 and rereleased by Platform Publications, Small Mercies is a collection of recent poetry from Larry Schwartz. | |
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Notes on Sweeping Things Paul Croucher Platform June 2025 |
| Notes on Sweeping Things by Paul Croucher was released in June this year, drawing inspiration from Zen. | |
Pictured (left–right): Miranda Darling, Evelyn Araluen.
Category: Think Australian feature
