Category: Behind the book

Karleah Olson is a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University, where she is studying Australian coastal gothic literature. It’s clear that her studies have influenced the creativity behind her manuscript A Wreck of Seabirds. The Fogarty Literary Award judges said her tightly written, atmospheric gothic YA novel evocatively captured the natural environment and explored the […]

Katherine Allum describes herself as one of those ‘weird homeschool kids’ who, growing up, was rarely seen without pen, paper and a library book. American-born, she moved frequently during childhood and finished her hybrid education in a small town in the desert. She completed her MA at City, University of London, where she wrote the […]

What does it take to command a submarine? That’s the subject of Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life.  What’s one thing you’d like Australians to understand about the Submarine Arm of the Royal Australian Navy?  The tremendous value of our submarines as a deterrent, combatant or both, and the resultant positive impact they have on […]

During my thirty-five years as a published writer and thirty years as a teacher of creative writing at various universities, I’ve read several articles by creative writers, writing teachers or editors who say that starting to write a new story is the hardest part. But for me, beginning a story comes relatively easily. Almost always, […]

As mums ourselves, we wanted to create a book our babies would have loved – something fun that also fed their growing brains! Say Hooray engages babies on multiple levels by stimulating their senses and helping them build an understanding of language, the world around them and themselves. Say Hooray also has the potential to […]

Sienna Rose Scully is the youngest of four children. She is an Integrated Marketing Communications graduate who grew up in Noongar Whadjuk Boodja (Fremantle), Western Australia. Sienna has dealt with OCD since childhood and is passionate about bringing awareness to what this disorder entails and to help other OCD sufferers. She is a contributor to […]

One of my favourite features of novels – and one that makes the art form different to many others – is their ability to take on the perspectives, words and thoughts of a fictional character. As readers, we feel the intimacy of being told a story and enjoy the benign voyeurism of having a window […]

The Ghost of Gracie Flynn is part of a long tradition of novels with otherworldly narrators. I gave Gracie the reins because I felt that the various points of view I’d created in early drafts needed a compelling, omniscient perspective to pull them all together. And I’m glad I did that because it turned out […]

On leaving home When I left Melbourne at the age of twenty-one, I left behind the squelching autumn leaves that fell from the big European trees along the Yarra. I left behind bracing clifftop walks on Phillip Island with my two best partners-in-writing, and the salami we placed where the phone handset should be. I […]

Helen Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She has always had a passionate interest in health and wellbeing, especially for children, which is why she became a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. In this Q&A the talented writer and illustrator tells us about her latest book. Tell […]

On the surface, it seems as though Chemutai Glasheen’s short story ‘The Debt’, in Unlimited Futures, and Maria Papas’ award-winning novel Skimming Stones, don’t have much in common. However, as the second panel at Fremantle Press’s Great Big Book Club got underway, it became clear that Chemutai’s and Maria’s stories and writing processes share quite […]

Ninni Yabini is a dual language picture book – in Noongar and English – by Cheryl Kickett-Tucker and Tyrown Waigana. We asked Cheryl to tell us more about why she wrote the book and why wants you to read this story with the kids in your life. Why did you write the picture book? I […]

If you’re like me when you enjoy a thing, you want others to share that joy. The drunk bellowing over your shoulder at the football game might be irksome, but doesn’t it beat being an audience of one? This is particularly so if you’re a writer. Sure, we should write for ourselves (goes the advice), […]

At the 2022 Great Big Book Club held at Success Library with Fremantle Press, historical fiction authors David Whish-Wilson, Sharron Booth and Portland Jones made the writing process sound equal parts challenging and rewarding. Moderator and author Brooke Dunnell kicked off the discussion by having each author introduce their book. Despite their vastly different plots […]

People ask me: Where do your ideas come from?  Each of my books has a different genesis, but often the starting point is me saying,`I want to write a story that does X’.  Sometimes the inspiration is no more than an image or scene that sparks in my brain. Or it might be a big […]

Nadia Rhook is a historian and poet, born in Naarm / Melbourne and currently living in Boorloo / Perth. Her new poetry collection examines birth and parenthood with a consciousness that spans centuries. Second Fleet Baby draws on the energies of 18th century English convict women, including her own ancestors, to open raw questions of […]

Andrew Sutherland’s brilliant debut book examines Queer and HIV-positive identity from the point of diagnosis to the point of openness, resilience and transformation. In this piece Andrew reflects on writing the collection. The Events Here is a poem, failed or unfinished: I was in the waiting room of a clinic in Boat Quay, Singapore. It […]

Bron Bateman’s latest collection of poems, Blue Wren, is structured around a suite of Frida Kahlo paintings that provide a powerful way of healing, of reclaiming the past and of embracing the beauty of now. But in this article, Bron shares how the collection might never have been without some key advice from a friend. […]

It’s 17 years since Dianne Wolfer and Brian Harrison-Lever’s award-winning and acclaimed picture book for older readers was released. And it’s 80 years since the Kokoda Track battles it depicts took place. Published on 30 July 2005 and set in 1942, Photographs in the Mud is told from the point of view of two soldiers, […]

My omnibus (best word ever), The Vexatious Haunting of Lily Griffin grew out of my first middle reader novel Lily in the Mirror (CBCA Notable 2017 – just saying). Lily is a character that appeared one day and spoke to me, I felt like she was whispering in my ear. Don’t judge. Then she wrapped […]

Patsy Millett, the author of Inseparable Elements: Dame Mary Durack was the guest speaker at the Perth/Crawley Rotary Club on the occasion of World Polio Day 2022. Her sister, Robin Miller, is celebrated as a pioneer of delivering Polio vaccine to remote communities, saving countless lives. This is Patsy’s speech:

Synchronicity – it’s a ‘thing’ for many authors. During the research and writing of each story in my historical ‘Light’ series I’ve experienced delightfully unnerving coincidences, making me wonder how books come about. Do I choose the story or does the story choose me? In the case of The Last Light Horse, perhaps it’s the […]

This book didn’t start life as a book. It began as therapeutic journaling to deal with the trauma that re-emerged when the man who violently attacked me in my workplace was, some twenty-five years later, arrested and charged with brutal rape and murder. When Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested in 2016 for a series of […]

nlimited Futures: Visionary, Speculative Blak and Black Fiction is now available and we’re over the moon for all the contributors, editors, designers and publishers involved. A week past the release, we asked editors Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven to reflect on the journey thus far.