'In her debut memoir, Muddy People, Sara El Sayed records her teenage years growing up in Australia as an Egyptian–Muslim migrant. Sara’s parents, both professionals, fled Egypt’s percolating economic and political instability and moved to Queensland, where they were forced to reaccredit themselves while taking a hotchpotch of jobs to keep the family afloat.' (Introduction)
'Is there any better feeling than reading a book that makes you feel as if you’re discovering all over again the singular magic of telling? Sugar Town Queens drew me in, dismantled my heart and then put it back together. It’s a stunning young adult book from the multi-award-winning author Malla Nunn, whose debut YA novel When the Ground Is Hard (2019) was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and won a swag of international prizes.' (Introduction)
'Occasionally a book arrives that is so strange, so obscure, so crouched and brooding and – in the final analysis – mystifying, that you cannot begin to know what to make of it. Exhibit A: Jennifer Mills’ The Airways.' (Introduction)