Write & Seek

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Sarah Sasson is an immunologist, academic and writer living on Gadigal and Bidjigal land.

Her debut novel Tidelines was longlisted for the Queensland Writers' Centre Publishable Program, shortlisted for the Varuna House Publisher Introduction Program and released by Affirm Press in January 2024.

In 2021 Sarah edited Signs of Life (MoshPit Publishing) an international anthology themed on first- and second-hand experiences of illness and caregiving. Signs of Life was profiled by Kirkus Reviews and featured on their 2022 Indie Books Worth Discovering list.

Sarah's work has appeared in Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Ramona Magazine, Grieve Anthology, Grattan Street Press and Unsweetened, among other places.

Website: sarahsasson.com

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahsassonwrites

Facebook: facebook.com/SarahSassonWriter

Book: affirmpress.com.au/browse/book/Sarah-Sasson-Tidelines

Meet the debut book.

It's Sydney in the early 2000s, and Grub is spending the summer with her universally adored older brother, Elijah, and his magnetic but troubled best friend, Zed. Their days are filled with surfing, swimming and hanging out; life couldn't be better.But years later, Elijah disappears and Grub's family unravels. At first, Grub blames Zed: he was the one who derailed Elijah from a bright future in the arts. But as Grub looks back at those dreamy summer days, the sanctuary of her certainty crumbles. Was Zed really responsible for her brother's disappearance? Was anyone?Tidelines is a tender coming-of-age novel about growing up in the face of unimaginable loss. It examines the stories we subconsciously write for ourselves, and what remains later, when we have the courage to tear them apart.

Tidelines by Sarah Sasson is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Emily Tsokos Purtill is a Western Australian writer of Greek heritage living in Perth/Boorloo on the lands of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people. She has also lived in the UK, Vancouver, Paris and New York. Her creative non fiction, short fiction, flash fiction and poetry has been awarded and published in anthologies and journals in Australia and the United States.

Her short fiction can be found in Westerly and Griffith Review. After being awarded for her short fiction as a young writer, including winning the Tim Winton Award for Outstanding Achievement and twice winning the Katharine Susannah Prichard Award for Young Writers, Emily pursued a career in law and has worked as a lawyer in Perth and in Paris. Emily returned to writing when she lived in New York in 2013/2014. Matia is Emily's debut novel.

Website: emilytsokospurtill.com

Instagram: instagram.com/emilytsokospurtill

Facebook: Emily Tsokos Purtill - Author

Book: uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/matia

Meet the debut book.

A woman in my village gave me four prophecies . . . they have all come true, so far.

Sia is a young Greek woman who has emigrated from Greece to Perth, Western Australia in 1945 for a better life. She carries with her four prophecies and four pieces of protective jewellery, matia, one for herself, her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. With a dooming prophecy hanging over each woman’s head will their lives unfold as they want or are they chained to the fate that’s been destined for them?

Over four generations and three continents, linking back and forth over 125 years from Greece to Perth to New York and back to Greece, Emily Tsokos Purtill has weaved a story that is utterly captivating and deeply moving.

Matia by Emily Tsokos Purtill is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Rhianna King spent 20 years working in strategic communications for state government environment agencies. During this time, she developed a love of the natural world and learned everything she’ll ever need to know about cane toads. She now works for a not-for-profit Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation.

When she’s not spending time with her husband, two kids and dog Rosie, Rhianna is reading, chasing her next marathon PB or sending apologetic messages to friends and family about it being too long between catch ups.

Website: rhiannaking.com.au

Instagram: instagram.com/rhianna.m.king

Meet the debut book.

Beth doesn't feel like she belongs in her rambunctious, bohemian family. Apart from the special relationship she shares with her grandma, Elise. When Beth wins the lottery (on a ticket she bought to prove she could be spontaneous), she decides to spend it on treating Elise. 

But instead of anything material, Elise wants Beth to help her track down her first love, Gerry. It's a fun and uncomplicated little adventure, Beth thinks, until she discovers that her grandma's great love is actually a woman, and their romance was thwarted by the conservatism of the day. Grappling with her grandma's past spurs Beth to reconsider herself in the present.

Birds of a Feather is a funny, poignant and utterly charming debut novel about questioning who you are and what you might become.

Birds of a Feather by Rhianna King is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Entranced by the power of words from birth, Marie O’Rourke spent many years reading, analysing, and teaching the stories of others before working up the nerve to start shaping her own.

That story culminated in a PhD from Curtin University, where her research and writing pushed against the tradition of first-person, past-tense, chronological, narrative memoir, hoping to capture the shape-shifting nature of memory and identity.

Marie’s memoir was shortlisted for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award and her essays have been published in many respected national and international journals such as a/b, Axon, Essay Daily, Meanjin, Meniscus, New Writing, TEXT and Westerly.

Teaching creative writing and literary studies at Curtin University, and now at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, Marie is passionate about helping future generations of readers and writers to see and feel all that words can carry.

Twitter: twitter.com/marieorourke25

Meet the debut book.

All her life, Marie O’Rourke has been a Good Girl, a perfectionist, using words to apply golden seams to an imperfect life in an attempt to make something beautiful out of things that are flawed or broken. A volatile father, the death of a sister far too young, a faltering marriage, the ghosts of lovers past: these are just some of the fragments that Marie puts together again in these essays that explore her closest relationships as a daughter, sister, mother, wife and lover.

With exquisite prose, Marie reflects on the beauty of brokenness and the ways in which time can transform our understanding of truth, forgiveness, and healing. These essays are a poignant reminder that some things cannot be fixed but can still hold immense beauty and meaning. Whether you’ve experienced similar struggles, or are seeking a deeper understanding of the human experience, Marie’s collection will leave you moved and inspired.

How many of us feel our family life is not picture perfect? This book will resonate with those who are interested in exploring the human condition through universal themes of love and loss, forgiveness and redemption.

Kintsugi by Marie O’Rourke is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Martine was born in Canberra, raised in Sydney, and now lives and works in Brisbane. She has worked as a soldier, a journalist and an academic, and her essays and short fiction have appeared in journals such as Griffith Review, The Conversation, The ABC, Overland and Crackle Anthology. 

Martine teaches professional and creative writing at The University of Queensland as well as in the community, and she is a regular speaker and in-conversation partner at literary events.

Website: martinekropkowski.com

Instagram: instagram.com/martinekropkowski

Book: ultimopress.com.au/products/everywhere-we-look

Meet the debut book.

A year after a tragic incident splintered their friendship, three women travel to Marcoy, a regional town, in attempt to reconnect.Melissa has slept much of the past twelve months away, and she hopes this weekend will help her re-emerge from the depression she’s been living with. Bridie worries that she is not a good enough mother. She worries about most things, really, but she’s dealing with things just fine. At least that’s what she tells herself. What Cassandra really needs is a break, so she’s come away to forget it all, to enjoy a cab sav and an open fire and the company of her long-lost friends.This weekend is about being together, about enjoying their friendship the way they used to, while not—at any cost—having to address the reason for the distance between them. But when they witness a young girl being coerced into a car by a man she fears, they are forced to reckon with the chasm of grief and trauma that’s kept them apart.Everywhere We Look explores domestic abuse, the dynamics of female friendship, and the danger that can hide in plain sight.

Everywhere We Look by Martine Kropkowski is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Karleah Olson is a Perth-based writer and an avid reader. She loves to read all genres, and to collect more books than she can possibly read in a lifetime.

Karleah has spent the last few years as a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University, where she is studying Australian Coastal Gothic Literature.

Her debut novel A Wreck of Seabirds was shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award, and is a work of young adult fiction inspired by the gothic genre and the West Australian coastal landscape.

Instagram: instagram.com/karleah_may

Book: fremantlepress.com.au/books/a-wreck-of-seabirds

Meet the debut book.

When Briony first meets Ren, he is standing in the freezing sea at the edge of their tiny town.

Ren hasn’t been home for a decade but has returned to be with his dying father.

Briony won’t leave, hoping that Sarah, her missing sister, will one day reappear.

But Sarah and her friend Aria have been stranded on a desolate island far off the coast. The longer they’re trapped there, the less alone they seem.

How many secrets in this town have been swallowed by the brooding sea?

A Wreck of Seabirds by Karleah Olson is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Tigest Girma is an Ethiopian writer based in Melbourne, Australia. After graduating with a Bachelor of Education, she splits her time between writing and teaching.

Passionate about exploring East African characters and myths, her work weaves Black stories with the dark and fantastical.

In her free time, she can be found rewatching her comfort shows where the villain gets the girl. She invites you to visit her at tigestgirma.com or tiktok.com/tigestgirma. Immortal Dark is her debut novel.

Website: tigestgirma.com

Instagram: instagram.com/tigestgirma

TikTok: tiktok.com/tigestgirma

Book: hachette.com.au/tigest-girma/immortal-dark-trilogy-book-1-a-lost-heiress-a-soulless-vampire-a-secret-drenched-in-blood

Meet the debut book.

A lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister in this dangerously romantic and highly anticipated dark academia debut.

Orphan Kidan Adane is the heiress to a fallen House of humans bound to vampiric creatures known as draniacs. As a human, it is her responsibility to study and nurture the relationships between draniacs and humans at Uxlay University.

But when her sister is kidnapped and Kidan suspects that her own house draniac, the enigmatic Susenyos, is to blame, she heads down a violent path towards vengeance, willing to hurt anyone who stands in her way.

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Gail Holmes grew up in Scotland, the youngest of seven children and the only girl. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering and a Master of Business Administration. She had a career with an international energy company for twenty-three years. During this time Gail also married and had five children.

She moved to Australia in 2013. Her creative writing journey began when she was a working mum with very young children in Shanghai, China. Unable to get back to sleep one night, Gail started writing short stories about living in Shanghai. As this writing habit continued to grow, she attended short courses at the City College of Literature in London and then later studied the Melbourne University’s Master of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing programme, graduating in 2021.

In the Margins is her first novel.

Website: gailholmesauthor.com

Instagram: instagram.com/gailholmeswrites

Book: ultimopress.com.au/collections/gail-holmes/products/in-the-margins

Meet the debut book.

Inspired by a real person, In the Margins is the story of spirited book-collector, Frances Wolfreston—the woman who uniquely preserved the earliest part of Shakespeare’s legacy.   England, 1647. As civil war gives way to an uneasy peace and Puritanism becomes the letter of the law, Frances Wolfreston, a rector's wife, is charged with enforcing religious compliance by informing on her parishioners. This awful task triggers memories of her mother, Alice, who inspired Frances’s love of books and secretly practised Catholicism at great risk. Conflicted, she doesn’t report a reclusive and mysterious midwife to delay her going to gaol. As Frances takes increasingly bold steps to help the women and children of the parish, she attracts the ire of a patron of the church who questions why Frances collects books that she charges are entertainment. When her mother is gaoled for religious crimes, the secrets Frances hides from her husband begin to surface, and she is faced with an impossible choice: comply with the strict dictates of the new laws, or risk everything to free the women she cares for.   In this tender and powerful work of imagination, the life of a remarkable woman who wrote and lived in the margins in a time where women's voices went unheard is restored to history. Beautifully written and deeply moving, In the Margins is a testament to the way literature can illuminate our inner lives and set us free when the world around us is covered in darkness.

In the Margins by Gail Holmes is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

Welcome to Write & Seek!

Meet my guest.

Susannah grew up on a sheep farm in NSW.

She has worked as a GP from Boggabri to Broome, South Coast to Red Centre and a whole lot of places in between.

In 2006, Susannah started a Graduate Diploma in Professional Writing at Canberra University. She was awarded Editor’s Pick for short story ‘Fly to meet you’ in the UCan’s First anthology, and best written text for children’s book ‘Don’t You Dare!’ in the Get Real project.

‘The Deed’ is Susannah’s first novel. It won the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers in 2022 and is published by Hachette Australia. Susannah is represented by the Jane Novak Literary Agency.

Website: susannahbegbiewrites.au

Instagram: instagram.com/susannahbegbiewrites

Book: hachette.com.au/susannah-begbie/the-deed

Meet the debut book.

A perceptive and unforgettable debut novel from the 2022 Richell Prize winner that explores the messy, sometimes volatile, complications that only the best and worst of family can bring.

MEET THE EDWARDS FAMILYTom Edwards is dying, and cranky. He's made his peace with the dying part. But he'd bet his property - the whole ten thousand acres of it - that there'd be no wailing at his funeral. His kids wouldn't be able to chop down a tree, let alone build a coffin to bury him in.Then Tom has an idea ...Christine is furious, David ashen-faced, and Sophie distracted. Only Jenny listens carefully as Vince Barton, of Barton & Sons, reads their father's will. Either they build his coffin - in four days - or they lose their inheritance. All of it.A perceptive and unforgettable debut novel, The Deed explores the messy, sometimes volatile, complications that only the best and worst of family can bring. Sometimes greed can be good.

The Deed by Susannah Begbie is available to purchase wherever you buy your books. Alternatively, check in with your local library. If they don’t have a copy yet, put in a request!

For more debut Australian books, check out The Australian Debut Author Book List, curated by yours truly!

'The Little Black Book of Publishing is a big-hearted and no-nonsense writing and publishing mentor for your pocket or bookshelf.'

Kate Mildenhall, author of The Hummingbird Effect.

The Little Black Book of Publishing by Katherine Larsen (founder of Debut Books) is officially available to purchase at debutbooks.com.au.

Alternatively, head to your local library or bookshop and put in a request!