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New Australian Fiction 2021 (ed by Rebecca Starford, Kill Your Darlings)
Released September 2021
Kill Your Darlings’ third annual short fiction anthology, New Australian Fiction 2021, brims with stories—by diverse authors both emerging and established—that traverse a wide array of topics. These stories probe... Read more
Let’s Eat Weeds! (Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb, illus by Evie Barrow, Scribble)
Released September 2021
I can’t think of anything more anxiety-provoking than helping children decide which weeds are safe to eat. But Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland tackle the task with humour, zeal and... Read more
Treasure in the Lake (Jason Pamment, A&U)
Released September 2021
Friendship, hidden cities and all-round adventure lie at the heart of Jason Pamment’s immersive graphic novel Treasure in the Lake. Sam and Iris have been best friends since they were little, but as the two... Read more
In Moonland (Miles Allinson, Scribe)
Released September 2021
Miles Allinson’s accomplished second novel—the follow-up to his moving and deeply personal 2015 debut Fever of Animals—is an ambitious and gripping story of parenthood, utopias and environmental collapse, told across several interconnected narratives. The narrator of... Read more
The Curlew’s Eye (Karen Manton, A&U)
Released September 2021
A poisoned dam, a crumbling abandoned homestead, encounters with a mysterious girl and the pull of a haunting landscape are all woven together in this literary Australian Gothic debut from Karen Manton.... Read more
I Shot The Devil (Ruth McIver, Hachette)
Released September 2021
Richell Prize-winner Ruth McIver’s debut crime thriller is a powder-keg with a slow burning fuse that has you racing to figure out which of the shadowy, unreliable suspects ‘did it’—and... Read more
The Things We See in the Light (Amal Awad, Pantera Press)
Released September 2021
This book opens with Sahar arriving on her best friend Lara’s doorstep in Newtown, and it’s apparent Sahar has changed a lot since Lara last saw her. Once a shy,... Read more
A Trip to the Hospital (Freda Chiu, A&U Children)
Released September 2021
Freda Chiu’s first picture book, aimed at children aged three to seven, provides a friendly introduction to the idea of hospitals and what might happen in them. Largely informational rather... Read more
The School for Talking Pets (Kelli Anne Hawkins, illus by Beth Harvey, HarperCollins)
Released September 2021
With her debut middle grade novel, The School for Talking Pets, Kelli Anne Hawkins brings us a delightful tale that is reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Mysterious Benedict Society. Rusty Mulligan is... Read more
Sold Down the River (Scott Hamilton & Stuart Kells, Text)
Released September 2021
Once upon a time, Australian farmers traded thousands of megalitres of water for something as simple as a slab of beer. Then the economic mood changed. The 1980s brought political leaders... Read more
The First Time I Thought I Was Dying (Sarah Walker, UQP)
Released August 2021
This is an essay collection in which the most difficult and abject parts of being a human in a body are examined with full and unflinching frankness, from our unacknowledged... Read more
Sugar Town Queens (Malla Nunn, A&U)
Released August 2021
Sugar Town Queens is a young adult coming-of-age novel by Malla Nunn, author of When the Ground is Hard. Her latest book follows 15-year-old Amandla, who is mixed-raced and growing... Read more
The Spectacular Suit (Kat Patrick, illus by Hayley Wells, Scribble)
Released August 2021
Parties can be extremely important for children. Especially for Frankie, the protagonist of The Spectacular Suit, who has never asked for a party before. With everyone in her class coming,... Read more
An Insider’s Plague Year (Peter Doherty, MUP)
Released August 2021
Laureate Professor Peter Doherty is one of the most well placed individuals to write a walk-through of the past year and a half of pandemic life. A Nobel Prize-winning immunologist... Read more
Devils in Danger (Samantha Wheeler, UQP)
Released August 2021
When strange things start happening around 11-year-old Killarney’s house—missing clothes, screaming in the night—she becomes determined to solve the mystery. Killarney soon discovers that the culprit is a wild Tasmanian... Read more
Underground: Marsupial outlaws and other rebels of Australia’s war in Vietnam (Mirranda Burton, A&U)
Released August 2021
Mirranda Burton’s graphic novel presents an overview of Australia during the Vietnam War by following three main characters: anti-war activist Jean McLean, Vietnam veteran Bill Cantwell and refugee Mai Ho.... Read more
Empires (Nick Earls, Vintage)
Released August 2021
With his latest novel, Nick Earls again proves his talent for compelling and convincing storytelling. A novel in five parts, Empires tracks backwards through history from 2018 to 1809 before... Read more
Albert Namatjira (Vincent Namatjira, Magabala)
Released August 2021
In his picture book biography Albert Namatjira, Vincent Namatjira paints a stoic and quietly devastating portrait of his great-grandfather Albert, one of the most iconic figures in Australian painting. An... Read more
Girls in Boys’ Cars (Felicity Castagna, Pan)
Released August 2021
Felicity Castagna’s Girls in Boys’ Cars is not dissimilar to her Prime Minister’s Literary Award–winning young adult novel The Incredible Here and Now, which centres on a 15-year-old coming of... Read more
The Night Village (Zoe Deleuil, Fremantle Press)
Released August 2021
A year ago, Paul and Simone met at a party—young, carefree and living separate lives. Now, they’re parents to a tiny new baby and nothing between them is the same.... Read more
