Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance

This is such wonderful news to share. BONE MEMORIES has been shortlisted for the 2023 Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance.

The award is open to all Australian authors for works primarily focused on documenting and increasing the awareness of Queensland stories, history or voices.

Congratulations to all the finalists for the award and a big thank you to the judges whose comments (below) made me feel that my greater intention for the work was truly seen.

Judges' comments: 

Bone Memories is a deeply considered and multi-layered examination of the way trauma is held in Australian soil. Through the prism of one near-shattered family, the novel shows that healing is possible when radical listening is at the heart of what we do, so we might move towards radical living.  

The winner will be announced on 6 September at a ceremony for the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony held at State Library of Queensland.

To view all finalists across the 12 categories of the awards, visit the State Library of Queensland website here.

The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

I’m thrilled to be sharing this news! BONE MEMORIES is a finalist in 2023 The Courier-Mail Queensland Book of the Year Award.

The award celebrates Queensland authors — which I proudly am — and is part of the Queensland Literary Awards, with the winner determined by the public.

To cast your vote for your favourite book by a Queensland author visit the State Library of Queensland website here.

The winner will be announced at the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony on 6 September 2023.

Congratulations to all the other finalists!

Image credit: State Library of Queensland

Bone Memories longlisted for a 2023 Davitt Award

What a wonderful surprise! BONE MEMORIES has been longlisted for a Sisters in Crime 2023 Davitt Award in the Adult Novel category.

Now in its 23rd year, the Davitt Awards celebrate Australian female crime writers. The shortlist will be announced in late July.

Congratulations to all those longlisted!

To see those listed across the four categories of the awards, visit the Sisters in Crime website.

Image credit: Sisters in Crime website

Brisbane Writers Festival

Workshop: Landscape Writing

Place and landscapes are often overlooked in stories when they could be used as powerful drivers of character and narrative. This workshop aims to redress this through a series of readings, writing exercises and discussions which assist writers to re-imagine their relationship with the natural world and guide them in new ways of thinking and writing about place.

I’m thrilled to be offering this three-hour interactive workshop at the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival. Throughout the session I will take writers on a deep dive into their relationship with the natural world, providing them with ideas and strategies to write about landscapes in a way that compellingly transports their representation of place beyond the sensory to the emotional, philosophical and political. All participants need bring with them to this generative workshop is a pen, paper and a passion for the places that sustain us, and a desire to write about them in new and meaningful ways.

Venue: Heritage Collections Learning Room, State Library of Queensland

Date: Saturday 13 May

Time: 10am - 1pm

Bookings for this event are essential and can be made here through the BWF website.

Brisbane Writers Festival

Panel: Secrets and Grief

Some truths can only be glimpsed through the prism of loss, with grief exposing us to the most painful and revelatory parts of the human experience. These moving novels depict grief as a painful, productive process through which we might apprehend the darkest and most deeply felt recesses of our own natures.

The 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival is fast approaching and I’m very excited to be on a panel discussing my novel BONE MEMORIES with fellow novelists Kylie Ladd (I’ll Leave You With This), Emma Grey (The Last Love Note) and Charlotte Nash (Twenty-Six Letters), moderated by Cass Moriarty (Parting Words).

Venue: Queensland Terrace, State Library of Queensland

Date: Thursday 11 May

Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Bookings for this event are essential and can be made here through the BWF website.

Brisbane Writers Festival

Panel: Writing the Landscape

The brutal beauty of Australia’s landscape has long fascinated writers and artists, as quaint, Rousseauan visions of nature routinely collapse into fire and flood. These novelists examine the psychological topography of Australian fiction and our passive-aggressive relationship to a volatile Mother Earth.

I will be in conversation with Robbie Arnott (Limberlost), Inga Simpson (Willowman) and Claire G Coleman (Enclave) about their wildly different but equally enthralling novels at the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival.

Venue: Auditorium 1, State Library of Queensland

Date: Sunday 14 May

Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Bookings for this event can be made here through the BWF website.

Brisbane Writers Festival

Panel: Growing Older Better

What can science teach us about how to live our best lives? Two health experts contemplate how we make the most of our time on earth, from breaking out of the habits that hold us back to discovering what can really keep us young.

I will be in conversation with Dr Norman Swan (So You Want to Live Younger Longer) and Dr Rebecca Ray (Small Habits for a Big Life) about their fascinating books at the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival.

Venue: Auditorium 1, State Library of Queensland

Date: Sunday 14 May

Time: 10am - 11am

Bookings for this event can be made here through the BWF website.

Dublin Literary Award

I’m humbled and ecstatic that BONE MEMORIES has been longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award. The Award is sponsored by Dublin City Council and administered by Dublin City Libraries. Nominations for the annual Award are submitted by libraries in major cities from throughout the world and I am ever grateful to State Library of Queensland for nominating mine.

Witnessing Landscapes: Nature Writing Workshop

In this 3-hour workshop writers take a deep dive into their connections with the natural world

Through a series of writing exercises, readings and discussions, I ask participants to re-imagine their relationship with the natural world in this 3-hour workshop. I begin with readings and writing exercises that encourage them to examine their connections to landscapes through the senses (sight, sound, taste, smell or touch), then move beyond these to the emotional, physical, political and philosophical realm. As the workshop progresses, participant’s perceptions of those connections shift from a sensorial experience to a felt experience, which culminates in imagining nature beyond the human.

All participants need bring to the workshop is a passion for the places that sustain them and the desire to write about them in new and meaningful ways.

Venue: Riverbend Bookshop

Address: 193 Oxford Road, Bulimba QLD 4171

Date: Sunday 6th November 2022

Time: 10:00AM - 1:00PM (AEST)

Bookings for the workshop are essential and can be made here.

Witnessing Landscapes: Nature Writing Workshop

I take writers on a deep dive into their relationship with the natural world in this 3-hour workshop. Through a series of writing exercises, readings and discussions participants will re-examine their connections with certain landscapes and places in their work, beginning with the senses, then moving onto the emotional, physical, political and philosophical realm of those connections.

All you need bring to this workshop is a passion for the places that sustain us and the desire to write about them in new and meaningful ways.

The events are free but bookings are essential. Follow the links below to book at a library near you.

Garden City Library

Address: Level R4, Garden City Shopping Centre, Kessels Road, Upper Mount Gravatt, QLD 4122

Date and time: Saturday 8 October 2022 from 10am - 1pm

Wynnum Library

Address: 145 Florence Street, Wynnum, QLD 4178

Date and time: Monday 10 October 2022 from 10am - 1pm

Kenmore Library

Address: Kenmore Village, 9 Brookfield Road, Kenmore Hills, Q:D 4069

Date and time: Saturday 15 October 2022, from 10am - 1pm

In-conversation with Holly Ringland

Join me for what is sure to be a wonderful conversation with Holly Ringland, international bestselling author of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, as we launch her epic new novel The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, published by HarperCollins.

Bookings for the event are essential and can be made through Avid Reader Bookshop who are hosting the event on the night.

Venue: Queensland Multicultural Centre

Address: 102 Main Street, Kangaroo Point, QLD 4169

Date: Tuesday 4 October 2022

Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm

My thoughts about the book

The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is so many things. It is an epic family saga but it is also an epic quest for the truth.

It is about fairytales, legends and myths, which become a touchstone to truth and wisdom for its characters in the modern world.

It is about kinship and sacrifice and the legacies left by each. And it is an elegy to love, loss and grief; and a clarion call against misplaced shame.

It is also an elegant and mesmerising tribute to the places that hold our stories, our heart and our memories.

In true Holly Ringland style the book has a glorious cast of unforgettable characters as seen through the eyes of its main protagonist Esther.

Esther’s greatest quest as she tries to understand what led to her much-loved sister Aura’s disappearance is getting past the dragon that is herself. She must find self-belief and courage. But even that is not enough: Esther must dig even deeper and find self-forgiveness for all of her perceived wrongs.

Which is to say that The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, just like Holly’s first novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, is a story of transformation: from child to adult, from dependence to independence; from fear to courage; denial to acceptance, pain to healed.

Alice Hart transformed her life through wildflowers and the desert. Esther Wilding does it through fairytales, tattoos and the sea. And for each, female friendships are their guiding light.

In-conversation with Jacinta Parsons

Join me at Avid Reader Bookshop for a conversation with ABC radio broadcaster and writer Jacinta Parsons about her fascinating new book A Question of Age: Women, ageing and the forever self, published by HarperCollins/ABC Books.

Venue: Avid Reader Bookshop, 193 Boundary Street, West End, QLD 4101

Date: 30 September 2022

Time: 6:30 - 7:30pm

My thoughts about the book

A Question of Age is a book that readers could revisit every few years and they will find some new understanding about themselves and about the world they are ageing into. Because as this book shows us, there is nothing static about our bodies or our thinking or the society we live in, certainly as it relates to ageing.

The title would suggest it is a book of answers to the questions that undoubtedly many of us ask ourselves about our own ageing. But in some ways, it leaves us with more questions than answers.

 What it does do though is make us think more deeply about the questions we do have. It makes us reconfigure them in our minds, and often in illuminating and more favourable ways. It makes us feel less alarmed by the things we grapple with as we age; those obsessions and preoccupations we’d do well to discard.

That it does this is one of the many strengths of the book, because often all the questions we do have about our ageing are ones that grow from frustration, anger or regret – and it certainly explores those feelings – but it also looks to the joys and wonders of ageing, something that is often overlooked.

It is a book that builds on the construct of ageing. And ageing does feel like a construct when you look at the forces Jacinta explores in her book; those things that decide the terms and perceptions of our ageing, things which are mostly out of our control.

It builds on our ageing from girlhood through to elders, and how those early years inform the latter ones.

And like life, it’s quite the ride.

You won’t always like the person you see reflected in its pages, but you will have a better understanding of where she comes from by the end of it. 

Author Talk + Dinner @ Mount Tamborine

Come along to The Back Room at North Stores in North Tamborine and join me for an evening of conversation as I discuss my new novel Bone Memories with Janene Gardner from Under the Greenwood Tree bookstore. Ticket includes a glass of wine and cheese board.

Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

For those who would like to stay on for dinner after the talk, I will be joining guests for a special 2-course dinner at Picnic Real Food Bar.

For more information or to make a booking visit here.

Bone Memories Book Event

If you missed my earlier Brisbane event where I was in conversation with Kristina Olsson, then come along to Books@Stones Bookstore where I will be in conversation with Kris again about my novel BONE MEMORIES. Wine and nibbles will be available before the event. For more details, visit the Books@Stones website.

Bone Memories - Sydney Book Launch

I’m thrilled to be in conversation with Patti Miller about my new novel Bone Memories at Sydney’s Better Read Than Dead Bookshop in June. I’d love to meet up with Sydney friends, old and new, so come along if you can.

The event is free but you will need to register your attendance here.

Venue: Better Read Than Dead Bookshop

Address: 265 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Date: Thursday 16th June 2022

Time: 6PM for a 6:30-7:30PM event (AEST)

Witnessing Landscapes: Nature Writing Workshop

I’m very pleased to be offering a 3-hour nature writing workshop called Witnessing Landscapes at Avid Reader Bookshop.

In the workshop, I take writers on a deep dive into their relationship with the natural world. Through a series of writing exercises, readings and discussions, participants will explore their connections to certain landscapes, beginning with the senses, then taking it into the emotional, philosophical and political realm.

The workshop is suitable for writers of all levels. All you need to bring to this workshop is pen, paper and a passion for the places that sustain us, and a desire to write about them in new and meaningful ways.

Bookings are essential and can be made here.

Venue: Avid Reader Bookshop

Address: 193 Boundary Road, West End QLD 4101

Date: Saturday 18th June 2022

Time: 10:00AM - 1:00PM (AEST)

Bone Memories Book Launch

I’m very excited to be in-conversation with Kristina Olsson, who will launch my third novel Bone Memories at Avid Reader Bookshop. The event is both instore and online with ZOOM.

Drinks will be available to purchase from Avid’s bar from 5:30PM

The event is free but seating is limited so you will need to register for it here.

I hope you can make!

Venue: Avid Reader Bookshop

Address: 193 Boundary Road, West End QLD 4101

Date: Friday 3rd June 2022

Time: 6PM for a 6:30-7:30PM event (AEST)

Stan-Lionsgate alliance to develop The Geography of Friendship

It all feels very real now that Australian streaming service Stan and Lionsgate have struck a television development alliance and will be working in partnership with the amazingly talented team at Aquarius Films and Dollhouse Pictures to bring The Geography of Friendship to screen in a limited series.

More information about the alliance can be found in a press release in Variety.

Cover reveal!

Here’s the cover for my third novel BONE MEMORIES, to be published by University of Queensland Press in June 2022. The cover design is by the hugely talented Sandy Cull and the stunning artwork is by Brisbane artist Tiel Seivl Keevers. I love it and can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Even though sixteen years have passed, Billie will never recover from the murder of her daughter, Jess, and clings to her memory — and the site of her death — like a life raft. Daniel, who was a toddler when his mother was killed, can recall little of what happened but knows if he’s to have any chance of a better future he needs to move on from that defining event – if only his grandmother would let him. Meanwhile Daniel’s stepmother, Carla, also feels trapped by Jess’s legacy but has a plan that she believes will help everyone to escape from the long shadow of the past.

Deeply human, evocative and beautifully written, Bone Memories explores themes of human connection and the memorialisation of place.

You can pre-order now via independent bookstores, online at booktopia.com.au or from UQP.

The Geography of Friendship for TV adaptation

I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Rose Byrne’s Dollhouse Pictures join forces with Australia’s Aquarius Films and screenwriter Giula Sandler to adapt The Geography of Friendship for screen as a limited 6-part TV series. That such a powerhouse of female producers and creatives is to bring this story about the fear women feel and the threats they face in the world to the screen is beyond my wildest dreams.

The full press release - aptly announced on International Women’s Day - can be read at Variety.

Shannon Murphy, Krew Boylan, Jessica Carrera, Rose Byrne and Gracie Otto (Dollhouse Pictures)

Polly Staniford and Angie Fielder (Aquarius Films)