Denotes website entries with audio interviews
In Sweet Christmas Secrets: A Regency Romance Holiday Anthology
Independently published and available through Amazon
Stephen Hart’s The Widow and Mr Cat is a novella length story in this generous tome of romances by authors Ebony Oaten, Erin Grace, Joanne Austen Brown, Susanne Bellamy, Isabella Hargreaves, Fiona M Marsden, Clyve Rose, Heidi Wessman Kneale and Catherine Bilson.
Liam Budge, Emily Clark, Farnoush Parsiavashi and Maura Pierlot will each receive $5000 plus coaching and peer exchange to bring their ideas to conceptual treatment with a professional theatre company.
The Street says the program is an investment in artists and new work in response to the severe impact COVID-19 has had on the arts community.
Live Festival – Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 November 2021, Huonville, Tasmania
Digital Festival – Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 November 2021
This is Australia’s southern-most literary festival, a celebration of books, writing and community in the scenic Huon Valley, Tasmania.
Living Arts Canberra is pleased to announce that we are a media partner for the festival.
Continue Reading“Terror Australis Readers and Writers Festival (TARWF)”
ES-Press, an imprint of Spineless Wonders, Australia, 2021
Cover illustration and design Bettina Kaiser and Imogen Rowe
This is a memoir, a series of almost stream of consciousness letters to the author’s dead daughter alluding to parts of her own life and their years together, including those leading up to her daughter’s death. It is an exquisitely painful and painfully exquisite work, not least because it is not fiction.
For Pity Sake Publishing, Australia, 2021
Disclosure: I was the commissioned cover and internals designer for this book.
The Lodeman is the fourth in Dorothy Johnston’s sea-change mystery series, crime stories set in the Victorian seaside town of Queenscliff. Dorothy’s readers will have been anticipating this book and will enjoy, once again, her strong evocation of place, her skill in character development and the use of almost theatre script dialogue.
Hachette/Lothian Children’s Books, Australia, 2021
With children and schools now routinely practising daily sorting and recycling of food scraps and classroom waste, students leading climate strike actions around the world and young folk like Greta Thunberg a household name, it seems to me that this book will be one kids can use to help nudge their parents into action.
Big Ideas Press, Australia, 2021
Cover design Monique-Mai Designs
Fragments was a very successful performance at The Street Theatre in Canberra in 2019 as part of ACT Mental Health Month. This book is the reworked script for that show.
It is also a study guide for theatre makers and teachers – a ‘how to’ document which users can adapt or lift as a whole into their own circumstances or educational setting.
EK Books, Australia, 2021
This gentle book draws our attention to the issue of childhood depression and its effect on the whole family. The story is told in the voice of Cookie, a dog who comes into the life of Girl, a child who is often sad.
Lothian Children’s Books/Hachette, Australia, 2021
This wonderfully gentle book reminds us to see ‘wonders and possibles’. Inspired by the author’s personal life, her experience of having a child with Tourette Syndrome, the book pays quiet homage to diversity of all kinds, to divergent thinking and the many ways people can see the world. It is about knowing and accepting that we are not all the same and that these differences make us better as a society.
Opening exhibition: Tamara Dean – High Jinks in the Hydrangeas
12 October to 17 December 2021
Entry Pavilion Commission: Megan Cope and local Aboriginal Community – Dreamtime Stories
Located within Retford Park, Ngununggula is a new Regional Gallery in the Southern Highlands, NSW. Ngununggula means ‘belonging’ in the traditional language of the Gundungurra People.
Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2021
What a very cheering novel this is, albeit dealing predominantly with the issue of grief after the loss of a long-time dearly beloved spouse. Jacquie Byron has captured that universal but at the same time highly individual response to unbearable loss with affection and humour in the character of Franny Calderwood.
Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2021
This is a suspenseful crime thriller with an investigative journalist as its protagonist. Oli Groves is a new character for the author, known for her Gemma Woodstock trilogy. She’s an old-school print media journalist who believes in thorough research and well crafted long form articles.
Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2021
What a cracker of a crime novel this is, with multiple intricate story lines to follow, a rich assortment of distinctly quirky characters and themes of abuse, power and justice hanging heavily over a vast and dusty landscape. With Treasure and Dirt, Chris Hammer, yet again, proves himself to be a master of his craft.
Hachette, Australia, 2021
As with Joanna Nell’s three previous books, this one focusses on the ageing woman, on society’s attitudes to them and their own needs and strengths.
In this case, however, there is the added lens of a young character in the person of Chloe,17 at the start of the story, and on a Duke of Edinburgh Award placement at the hospital cafeteria run by the commanding Hilary Halliday and her jovial if often chivvied assistant, Joy Grainger. These two ladies are in their seventies.
Big Sky Publishing, Australia, 2021
Hitler’s Assassins is the second book in Steve Matthews’ trilogy (book 3 upcoming). Steve was inspired to write this series by experiences with Polish friends and his own visit to Auschwitz. The works are focussed on Hitler and lesser known aspects of the Nazi regime during World War 11.
