Cirrus@Austlit

'Her 2020 novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her short fiction and novellas can be found in the collection The Burnished Sun.' (Introduction)

'I read Grandmothers: Essays by 21^st century grandmothers before Mother’s Day, but my daughter’s card prompted me to re-visit this collection of twenty-two essays by 21^st century grandmothers. As they cheered ‘Happy first grand-Mother’s Day’, I wondered what the essays would offer a grandmother of a grandson born between Australia’s megafires in January 2020 and COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.' (Introduction)

'Following their bestselling trilogy The Illuminae Files, Australian powerhouses Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff turn the world upside down in their newest series, The Aurora Cycle. Here, they bring us ‘not the heroes we wanted, just the ones we could find’.' (Introduction)

'Stan Grant – journalist, author of Talking to my Country and lauded orator – is back with his follow up work Australia Day.' (Introduction)

'Never Forget is a thoughtful and moving portrayal of World War I. War and conflict are difficult concepts to explain and for children to comprehend - how they start, why they continue, how they end, what is learnt, who we become.' (Introduction)

'Alison Evans, an Australian non-binary author, weaves a story of adventure, love and zombies in Highway Bodies.' (Introduction)

'It’s hard to find the words to capture what it’s like to live with mental ill-health, but Georgie Dent achieves this difficult task.' (Introduction)

'Lucy Treloar’s debut novel, Salt Creek, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and awarded a number of other prizes, including the Dobbie Award.' (Introduction)

'Under moonlight

An unknown route

A sky the colour of intense anxiety.

'No Friend But the Mountains opens with these lines of poetry, and immediately the reader knows this book, written from Manus Island, is no ordinary account of life in prison, no dry journalistic tome documenting Manus and offshore detention. The style is in keeping with a literary novel, melding fact and fiction and merging prose and poetry. What makes the book even more remarkable is that it was written by text message in Farsi on a mobile phone.' (Introduction)

'It’s not rare for an author to feel misgivings about the ways their early works make their way into print.' (Introduction)

'Pink Mountain on Locust Island is both a coming of age story and modern noir, and in it Jamie Marina Lau (劉劍冰) demonstrates a new approach to experimental fiction.' (Introduction)

'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, an anthology edited by Anita Heiss, is an extraordinary and moving work. It is also, in parts, a difficult and heart-breaking read.'  (Introduction)