Chaired by Nicole Abadee

Following heartbreak, self-absorbed young Melbourne boy Will flees to New York in search of adventure and forgetting. When wild hedonism doesn’t help, and with his visa and money fast running out, Will finds himself in Littleproud, Ohio, working for Wayne Gage, Vietnam veteran, amateur shaman and collector of exotic animals. Emily Bitto’s follow up to her Stella Award-winning The Strays is a clever, complex tale, full of opulent writing and meditations on human nature and our relationship with the natural world.