Denotes website entries with audio interviews
Affirm Press, Australia 2026
Cover design Deb Parry
The Writers Retreat is a clever work with almost an ‘insiders’ feel to it. Anyone who has anything to do with the writing and publishing world or who has ventured on a writing retreat will find that it strikes chords.
Affirm Press, Australia 2026
Cover design Nada Backovic
Cover images Nada Backovic; iStock.com: Fourleaflover, moonnoon, svetolk, tassel78, YURII ZASIMOV; Shutterstock.com: Vladimir Grigoriev
Kate Solly has mastered the art of plumbing the depths of contemporary society, whilst simultaneously telling a rollicking good fun story, full of the gamut of real people we recognise from our world and some loveable and/or quirky ones from her imagination.
HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia 2026
Cover design Emily O’Neill
Cover images rawpixel.com and shutterstock.com
Arianne James’ tale of selkies and other merfolk plunges us into the waters of Tasmania and Scotland with a rich heritage of folklore and seafaring. The powerful feminine is at its core – sisterhood, family and women’s wisdom.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Christabella Designs
Cover images Silas Manhood/Trevillion; iStock; Shutterstock
The brooding presence of the now overgrown and dilapidated manor at Thornwood Park is the setting for much of this novel, and a stark metaphor for decay and decline, for the buried past.
Hachette, Australia, 2026
Cover design Alex Ross Creative
Cover art courtesy Alamy/Steve-x-art; Alamy/The Natural History Museum; Shutterstock/Maomi Marcin
Inga Simpson’s writing about the natural world is so very beautiful that for me the purity of her language acts as a kind of counterweight to the darkness of her storytelling.
Palace Cinemas Canberra and nationally
10 June – 5 July 2026
Ths year’s festival includes an award-winning drama, a rom-com starring one of the most well-known Latin American actors, a historical epic, and a salsa documentary.
The Gallery Next Door, which will open in July 2026, is the brain-child of Canberra artist Jennifer Baird, who wants to create a welcoming space for regional artists to exhibit their work and for the Weston Creek community (and beyond) to enjoy.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Hazel Lam
Cover illustration Louisa Maggio
The Bookshop of Buried Pasts is a lusciously rich tale of mothering and forgiveness. Spanning two timeframes and places – the 1960s in Cambridgeshire and the recent past and present day in a NSW Southern Highlands village, the story takes us on an historical investigation of crimes, coercion and connection.
Wesley Music Uniting Church, Forrest, ACT
4.30pm Sunday, 7 June 2026
Music for Traverso (flute) and Baroque ensemble by the well-known Brentner, Sammartini, Pandolfi, Graupner, Vivaldi, Telemann and Boismortier.
Windy Hollow, Australia, 2026
Design by Nuovo Group
Love can be both gentle and intense at the same time. And thus it is in Sarah Wallace’s story Learning You By Heart.
Until 5 July 2026
Tuesday to Sunday 10am – 4pm
Kerry and Mike share an interest in their environment, their landscape, their wildlife and their waterways.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Deborah Parry Graphics
Cover images Elisabeth Ansley/Trevillion Images; Allusioni/iStock; Ekaproeka/Creative Market
With a decided nod to Golden Age detective fiction, Kirsty Manning gives us a female journalist amateur sleuth who works in concert with the metropolitan police in Paris and provincial police as the case widens.
Ringing for Peace: A Global Monument to Fallen UN Peacekeepers
Canberra Carillonist Thomas Laue has formed a not-for-profit organisation to bring into being his dream of the world’s first portable peace carillon, dedicated to celebrating peace through honouring the service and sacrifice of UN peacekeepers — people from more than 130 nations who have given their lives for peace.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Hazel Lam
Cover image iStock
Gabbie Stroud cleverly packs this book with levity and larrikinism, but this a veneer for the very dark matter that is actually the story here.
Canberra Theatre Centre
23– 27 May 2026
Three stories of Country. one message of hope: Keeping Grounded, Brown Boys, and Sheoakhonour Bangarra’s past while looking to the future. Together, these three works engage with vital First Nations social and cultural issues, reminding us of the enduring connections between people, land, and spirit.
