A reading list for Emerging Writers’ Festival 2018
Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) is just around the corner (19-29 June). Here are 10 books to read in preparation.
Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau
This is an unpredictable and innovative debut novel from a provocative new voice in Australian fiction. Embracing the noir tradition and featuring a prose style quite unlike any before, with references that will go both over your head and under your feet, Pink Mountain on Locust Island will flip readers upside down and turn your understanding of the world around around.
Find out what EWF events Jamie Marina Lau is appearing at here
From the Wreck by Jane Rawson
From the Wreck reimagines the remarkable story of George Hills, who survived the real-life sinking of the steamship Admella off the South Australian coast in 1859. Haunted by his memories and the disappearance of a fellow survivor, George’s fractured life is intertwined with that of a woman from another dimension, seeking refuge on Earth.
Find out what EWF events Jane Rawson is appearing at here
The Love of a Bad Man by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s debut story collection is a riveting exploration of the lengths some women will go to for the men they love: a schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany; a pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. Her forthcoming novel, Beautiful Revolutionary, explores similar themes and is one to watch out for in August.
Find out what EWF events Laura Elizabeth Woollett is appearing at here
Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin
Axiomatic is a boundary-shifting fusion of thinking, storytelling and meditation. Maria Tumarkin takes five axioms and interrogates their value as self-evident truth: ‘Give Me a Child Before the Age of 7 and I’ll Give You the (Wo)Man’; ‘History Repeats Itself…’; ‘Those Who Forget the Past are Condemned to Repeat It’; ‘You Can’t Enter The Same River Twice’; and ‘Time Heals All Wounds’. Our reviewer says: ‘This is a highly original collection unlike anything I’ve read by an Australian author.’ Read the full review here.
Find out what EWF events Maria Tumarkin is appearing at here
The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad
As far as Bani Adam is concerned Punchbowl Boys is the arse end of the earth. Though he’s a Leb and they control the school, Bani feels at odds with the other students, who just don’t seem to care. A romantic in a sea of hypermasculinity, he must come to terms with his place in this hostile, hopeless world. The Lebs is the first full-length work of fiction from Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Michael Mohammed Ahmad.
Find out what EWF events Michael Mohammed Ahmad is appearing at here
Dirty Words by Natalie Harkin
Natalie Harkin has this to say of her poetry collection: ‘This small contemplation on nation and history is informed by blood-memory and an uncanny knowing beyond what we are officially told; a reminder of multiple lived-histories, of other ways of knowing and being in this world. Our elders and ancestors fought for the right to exist and speak up into the future – there are traces and signs, and there was always resistance.’
Find out what EWF events Natalie Harkin is appearing at here
Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa
In the bustling streets, overcrowded hospitals and glittering nightclubs of Colombo, five family members find their bonds stretched to breaking point in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war. As the five leave Colombo to travel to an ancient city, the generations collide and long-held prejudices are revealed.
Find out what EWF events Rajith Savanadasa is appearing at here
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia is a powerful collection of short memoir from Indigenous writers. Featuring well-known authors and high-profile identities alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, this anthology will enlighten, inspire and educate about the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia today.
Adult Fantasy by Briohny Doyle
Adult Fantasy is a witty and topical inquiry into how we respond when our cultural clock starts ticking. In a crackling mix of memoir and cultural critique, Briohny Doyle explores how societies cultivate ideas about education, work, relationships, and ageing. She interrogates the concept of adulthood through the neon buzz of pop culture and the lives of other young adults.
Find out what EWF events Briohny Doyle is appearing at here
Heat And Light by Ellen Van Neerven
Divided into three parts, Heat And Light take traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. In ‘Heat’, we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl. In ‘Water’, a futuristic world is imagined and the fate of a people threatened. In ‘Light’, familial ties are challenged and characters are caught between a desire for freedom and a sense of belonging.
Find out what EWF events Ellen Van Neerven is appearing at here
