Category: Behind the scenes

Out There, In Here by Jessica Baker wins most travelled manuscript in this year’s Fogarty Literary Award shortlist. Begun in Manjimup, the story survived a van journey across the country and expat life in London before being submitted from Kununurra. It’s a testament to Jessica’s need to tell this story that it survived the upheaval […]

Seth Malacari (he/they) is a nonbinary trans masculine author and editor who is well-known to Fremantle Press. In 2023, he brought together a talented community of LGBTQIA+ writers from across the country for the anthology An Unexpected Party. Their new work is a trans-for-trans romance novel that shows how to explore the diversity of the […]

Serena Moss writes emotionally raw, structurally sharp fiction set in the kinds of places maps skip over. Her stories are built from wreckage, roadside grief, and the kind of characters who swear too much, care too hard, and keep showing up – even when it hurts. Wherever there’s room, she’ll write into it. Based in […]

Chuckie Raven is a youth worker and craftsperson with a passion for protecting queer kids. In their spare time they enjoy spending far too much on their hobbies. One that has stuck with them throughout their life is writing. In their earlier years they wrote poetry they are loath to revisit. In their early adulthood […]

So your organisation has decided to publish a book. You plan to use Fremantle Press as your publishing consultant and you’re now busy creating the book’s content. You’ve found a writer, who’s well underway with the text. But what about images? You know you want the book to be visual, but you’re not quite sure […]

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 […]

Wayne Bergmann has spent decades fighting for the rights of Traditional Owners – a job that often puts him in the firing line. So what was it like to reflect back on the entirety of his life – from his childhood to today? To write his story, Wayne called on award-winning novelist and longtime colleague […]

Adam Matthews has joined the Fremantle Press Sales and Marketing team as a publicist. CEO Alex Allan said she is excited to have Adam join the team. She said, ‘Adam has been on our radar for some time. Over the winter, he has been working with us as a casual, helping the Sales and Marketing […]

The Reading Pavilion ’Tis the judging season at Fremantle Press. It is also Djeran – the Noongar season when the long hot days give way to moody clouds and rain blowing in from the west. On Saturday and Sunday, as I enter the final stretch of the Fogarty Award judging campaign, I set up a […]

As I look around the room at AH Bracks Library, watching booklovers assemble, I’m struck by how wonderful this event is. Debut writers are assuaging each other’s fears while old hats are catching up. We’re brought together by stories; authors sharing their upcoming releases, teachers and other programmers seeking to help share those stories and […]

On a morning exploding with pigeons, I fall into a phone conversation with my old friend Kiera as I walk to work. ‘Can we talk about historical fiction?’ I ask. ‘I don’t write historical fiction,’ she says. ‘I write speculative biography.’ Isn’t that the way of writerly research, I think with a sigh: you push […]

Two new employees have joined the Fremantle Press team. Siana Liffers has been appointed Office and Customer Service Coordinator and Lisa Fehnle is the new Sales and Marketing Assistant. CEO Alex Allan said the move was precipitated by the retirement of long-standing, and much valued, Office Manager Cathy Szabo who will step down from her […]

A showcase of WA comedy, featuring twenty-five shows over four venues across Perth, is taking place this November. Some of WA’s funniest ever are performing at WA Comedy Week to remind us all where they came from. Jon Doust – who will not be in the showcase as he is way too old, no longer […]

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 […]

Fremantle Press commenced its reconciliation journey in August with a formal Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), endorsed by Reconciliation Australia. Over the last six months, I have been working with fellow RAP Working Group member Kirsty Horton and Reconciliation Australia to build the framework of our first action plan. Designed to enable our organisation to sustainably […]

The Success Library offered the perfect place for West Australian book lovers to gather to hear several lively panel discussions from some of Fremantle Press’s wonderful authors, as well as for a cup of tea and some scrumptious nibbles. This was my second time attending the Great Big Book Club, and I was eager to […]

Fremantle Press is proud to announce that we’ve committed to becoming carbon neutral. Over the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Carbon Neutral on behalf of The Press to take the steps to becoming Green. Taking action to help the environment is one of the most important things humans can do […]

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 […]

He’s over there! I recently finished reading How to End a Story, Helen Garner’s third volume of her edited diaries. I read it as my daughter was studying Monkey Grip for her VCE. In a captivating February session at the Perth Festival Writers Weekend, Garner told interviewer Gillian O’Shaughnessy that some reviewers complained that Monkey […]

After opening their newly-refurbished doors earlier this year, Fremantle Library at the new Wayalup Koort played host to Fremantle Press’ annual event programmers’ breakfast where Press authors pitched their latest literary works to other industry professionals. Joined by members of the Emerging Writers Program, everyone was keen to hear what Fremantle Press has in store for […]

In this article, Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter interviews a Mills & Boon author. When my friend was fourteen, he used to go to a mate’s place to read his friend’s mother’s Mills & Boons. Thosebooks with the purple spines taught my friend a lot. When he tells me this, it occurs to me that […]

When the curtains don’t match the carpet ‘It glinted like the Star of Bethlehem as the throbbing incandescent light strips of the office hit his winkle with a twinkle. Belinda dove into his pubes, running the ringlets through her fingers like grated carrots.’ – Rocky Flintstone, Belinda Blinked, 2021 Christmas Special, Part 1. What is […]

It was a day of sparkling wine, squishy cheese, good friends, family and fun when David Whish-Wilson launched Sally Scott’s debut cosy crime novel Fromage at Nikolai Estate in WA’s Swan Valley. Here’s what he has to say about the book. As a crime writer, and lover of great writing more generally, Fromage was a […]