News

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 […]

Mental health language matters and we all have to do better. There’s been a lot of talk in the last few years about the way we use language. How it can cause prejudice. But what about the way we use language surrounding mental health? More often than not it’s derogatory. Social change is the constant, […]

Join debut author Karen Herbert in the Open Book courtyard for an evening in conversation with Jo Morrison, as they discuss Karen’s novel, The River Mouth. Enjoy a drink and nibbles on arrival, doors open from 6.30 pm with the talk commencing at 7 pm.

Join editor Rafeif Ismail at the City of Vincent Library to hear about Unlimited Futures, an anthology of speculative, visionary fiction from 21 emerging and established First Nations and Black writers which reflects visionary pasts, hopeful futures and the invisible ties between First Nations people and People of Colour. This event is free to attend, […]

Renew your membership before Christmas to receive $10 off your next order. Fremantle Press members receive regular newsletters, exclusive discounts and a birthday gift voucher! *After sign-up, check your inbox for your $10 gift code. RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP >

By his calculations, Penguin Random House account manager Gavin Burbidge attempts to place 432 books into Australian bookstores per month. Across the publishing industry, that means your book will be competing against thousands of titles and your account manager’s pitch could be less than ten seconds long. For a deep dive into sales, Penguin Random […]

It’s just two months until 3 February 2022 when entries will open for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for an unpublished work of fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction by an unpublished writer. The winner receives a cash prize of $15,000 and a publishing contract with Fremantle Press. To help keep you motivated, […]

Julie Sprigg, author of Small Steps: A Physio in Ethiopia, has vowed to give her Christmas royalty cheque to Direct Reach Ethiopia. A Perth-based organisation, Direct Reach Ethiopia runs programs that empower people living in extreme poverty by supporting children’s education and increasing the earning capacity of Ethiopian women. Julie said, ‘Small Steps is about […]

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 […]

A Shot in the Dark came to a thrilling end on Wednesday 17 November as Alan Carter said goodbye to Cato Kwong and discussed the latest book in the series, Crocodile Tears, with Craig Kirchner from Abbey’s Bookstore in Sydney.

Get the professional insights you need to truly succeed as an author at The Business of Being a Writer Seminar 2022 presented as part of Perth Festival. If you’ve ever thought about being a writer, then look no further than this four part seminar series to answer all your questions. Georgia Richter, author of How […]

Described as ‘breathtaking’, ‘wise’ and ‘poetic’, Maria Papas’s City of Fremantle Hungerford Award winning novel Skimming Stones explores the impact of childhood illness and trauma on families. Set in a paediatric oncology ward and at Lake Clifton in Australia’s South West, Skimming Stones is about a nurse named Grace, who cares for and guides her […]

James Foley says the transition from a part-time day job to making a living from his craft was huge and he does not recommend any one quit their job, overnight, on a whim. It took James 14 years to get himself to the point of earning an income from his work as an author/illustrator. In […]

This Remembrance Day, I thought I’d share a few of the things I discovered while researching my novel Where the Line Breaks that I think deserve to be a little better remembered. My initial idea was to write about a real life Australian war poet, romanticising and fictionalising his or her life in a straightforward […]

Best known for her history of the Durack family, Kings in Grass Castles, Dame Mary Durack Miller was a friend and confidante to many celebrated writers, actors and artists, and an active and much leaned-upon president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Drawing on a great accumulation of firsthand sources, principally her mother’s diaries and […]

Now’s the time for Western Australian writers to add the final touches to their manuscripts! Opening on 3 February 2022, the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award is for an unpublished work of adult fiction, narrative non-fiction or young adult fiction by an unpublished writer. The winner receives a cash prize of $15,000 and a publishing […]

Hello and welcome to November! Strap in everyone, the countdown to Christmas is on! This time of year our retailers are in a tizz, our sales reps are forcing spare boxes of books into their overloaded car boots, customer service are stuffing express post envelopes and the rest of us are making loud attention-seeking noises […]

Under the night sky and twinkling lights of the gothic Fremantle Arts Centre, some of WA’s talented authors and artists gathered to launch 19 new books and commemorate 45 years of publishing. The Great Big Book Launch, hosted by Fremantle Press, provided authors and book lovers alike with a warm, supportive place for important local […]

Cartoonist Sarah Winifred Searle helped launch Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aśka at Rabble Books in Maylands. Here’s what she had to say about this new graphic novel for ages 12+.

Karen Herbert took to the stand on Wednesday 6 October to discuss her debut crime novel, The River Mouth, a small-town noir where long-kept secrets are bubbling up to the surface as part of this year’s A Shot in the Dark series. Karen was quizzed by Jane Seaton of Beaufort Street Books in Perth, with […]

In which, via a series of plot twists and non sequiturs, a prose editor gets around to asking a poetry editor about how and why she does what she does. Metaphors abound.

It’s been ten years since Detective Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong was introduced to the world. He was in his thirties then; the classical piano playing, cryptic crossword solving, stubborn obsessive was badly in need of redemption in both his career and his marriage. We first met him in Prime Cut, persona non grata, exiled to Stock […]

I believe comics to be a medium with a potential to tell unique and complex stories, by taking the reader on a personal journey. Below are five of my (many) favourite books. I recommend these highly if you’d like to see the masters at work, want to understand what the graphic novel fuss is all […]