No Words by Maryam Master

No Words by Maryam Master “Words have power.” (No Words by Maryam Master) Maryam Master’s debut children’s novel Exit Through the Gift Shop (illustrated by Astred Hicks) is shortlisted for the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers category. No Words, her new children’s /middle-fiction novel is equally important and powerful. Not a memoir […]

Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature

In exciting news Abdulrazak Gurnah has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I was ‘in conversation’ with him at the 2011 Brisbane Writers Festival. He had been nominated for the Booker Prize for Paradise by then (and also the Whitbread) and we discussed his new novel (at the time), The Last Gift (published Bloomsbury) in […]

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (published by Candlewick Press & Walker Books Australia) Author Interview “There will one day come a girl child who will unseat A king and bring about a great change.” (The Beatryce Prophecy) Kate DiCamillo’s books for children are amongst the best in the world. Titles […]

Michelle Kadarusman and Girl of the Southern Sea

“I suppose it was told this way because people expect that a girl would choose her beauty over anything else. But maybe one day you will write your own version of the story about a girl who overcomes her hardships instead.” (Girl of the Southern Sea) Michelle Kadarusman has swept onto the Australian and international […]