Interview | Books+Publishing

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Chelsea Watego on ‘Another Day in the Colony’

Wednesday, 1 September 2021
Chelsea Watego is an Indigenist health humanities scholar, prolific writer and public intellectual. Her debut essay collection Another Day in the Colony (UQP, November) examines the ongoing racism faced by...

Corey Tutt on ‘The First Scientists’

Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Kamilaroi STEM advocate and founder of Deadly Science Corey Tutt is the author of The First Scientists (illus by Blak Douglas, Hardie Grant, October), which explores early and contemporary First...

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...

Drawn to writing: Rove McManus on ‘Disgusting McGrossface’

Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Aussie television personality Rove McManus makes his foray into children’s books with picture book Disgusting McGrossface (Scholastic, September) and younger readers novel Rocky Lobstar (Scholastic, October). Kelsey Oldham spoke to...