She may be self-absorbed, adrift or unhinged, but the ‘sad girl’ is taking the publishing industry by storm.

Debut novelists Nadine J. Cohen (Everyone and Everything), Madeleine Gray (Green Dot) and Jessie Stephens (Something Bad is Going to Happen) have all created unforgettable protagonists who are fallible, at times unlikeable and painfully relatable.

Hear from these exciting debut novelists as they discuss making and breaking this emerging genre’s rules, and how they crafted compelling portraits of present-day womanhood. In conversation with The Guardian’s Steph Harmon.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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