AWC’s amazing creative writing team publish a whopping 43 books this year

2018 has been a bumper year for our team of creative writing presenters and alumni, publishing a whopping total of 43 books, including books of fiction and non-fiction in the genres of romance, historical fiction, fantasy, crime and mystery, thriller and suspense, Australiana and children.

Here, in no particular order, is a list of just some of our successful writers and their books which have been published this year – all of which will make fantastic gifts over the holiday season as there is literally something for everyone here!

Alumni publishing news

We at the Australian Writers' Centre are in awe of our hugely creative and successful alumni, whose perseverance, passion and dedication to their craft are second to none. Here is a list of some of their successes this year.

1. Shelly Unwin has had a blast of a year with two books published suitable for preschoolers and early primary school age – Blast Off! and There's a Baddie Running Through this Book.

2. Margaret Morgan’s book The Second Cure has been described as a “riveting blend of science, society and politics.”

3. By the end of this year, romance writer Penelope Janu will have been published three times. On the Right Track is a warm-hearted rural romance and her endearing and charming On the Same Page is the winner of the 2017 XO Romance Prize. Penelope’s story, Six Rules of Christmas appears in Our Country Christmas – a feel-good collection of Australian Christmas stories to warm the heart.

4. Maggie Hutchings’ charming picture book Unicorn! is sure to be a winner this holiday season.

5. Catherine Pelosi has had two books published – Quark’s Academy, a page-turning adventure for readers aged 8-12-year-olds and a picture book, Something for Fleur.

6. Following the worldwide success of her first novel The Dark Lake, Sarah Bailey has done it again with Into the Night, her second stunning new crime novel featuring the troubled and brilliant Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock.

7. Jaci Byrne’s book The Music Maker is about her grandfather, POW, the late Drum Major Henry Barnes Jackson. This gripping true story is based on his 5-year WWII diaries and spans two world wars.

8. Joanna Nell’s life-affirming debut, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village is a moving, funny, heartwarming tale of love and community.  

9. Daniel Gray-Barnett’s debut children’s book, Grandma Z  is filled with wonder, imagination, and a wild, magical spirit that will thrill young and old.

10. Fleur Ferris, the bestselling author of Risk, Black and Wreck, published another thrilling YA page-turner, Found.

11. Carl Lakeland published two exciting thrillers Eagle Shield and Project Amber set in the Australian outback, the Simpson Desert, Pine Gap, Nurrungar, Alice Springs, Darwin, Adelaide and Melbourne.

12. Following Tania Blanchard’s highly successful Australian novel based on a true story, The Girl From Munich, comes Suitcase of Dreams a sweeping, dramatic tale of love and identity, inspired by a true story.

13. Kali Napier’s heartbreaking historical bestseller The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge tells the absorbing story of a guesthouse keeper and his wife who attempt to start over. But the secrets that bind a family can also destroy a family.

14. Described as “A clever, funny and wryly observed story about books and discovering who you really are,” The Book Ninja is Ali Berg’s debut novel.

15. Ingrid Alexandra’s debut novel The New Girl is a gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist about a flatshare that goes horribly wrong.

16. Sarah Epstein’s debut novel, Small Spaces is a spine-tingling psychological YA thriller.

Presenter publishing news

17. The Director of Creative Writing Faculty here at the Australian Writers' Centre Pamela Freeman has published four books this year. The Desert Nurse (published under the name of Pamela Hart) is a WWI historical novel set in Cairo and the Sinai and covers the entire war, ending on Armistice Day.

Amazing Australian Women for 6-10-year-olds is a bright and colourful look at twelve incredible Australian women who helped shape our country, from politics and the arts to Indigenous culture, science and more.  

The paperback edition of Pamela’s award-winning Desert Lake, tells the story of the dry salt bed of Kati Thanda – Lake Eyre which shimmers in the desert heat. But far up north, the rains have come. Water is flooding into empty riverbeds and swirling down towards the lake. Soon everything will change.

Her book The Fastest Ship in Space is a fantastic space adventure for younger readers.

18. International bestseller Kate Forsyth’s paperback edition of Vasilia the Wise and Other Tales of Brave Young Women tells the tales of brave young women from yore. These are not your usual passive princesses waiting forlornly for their prince to come…

19. Natasha Lester’s The Paris Seamstress is set in the male-dominated world of 1940s New York fashion and begs the question, how much will a young Parisian seamstress sacrifice to make it?

20. Award-winning author Angela Slatter’s Corpselight set in Brisbane is the fast-paced sequel to Vigil the second book in the Verity Fassbinder supernatural crime series. Also published this year, her third book in the series, the brilliant Restoration where Verity faces the loss of all she holds dear – for walking between the worlds has always been dangerous.

21. Liar Liar is Candice Fox’s third collaboration with iconic crime and thriller author James Patterson. Gripping, shocking, fast-paced and fun this third book in the Detective Harriet Blue series is another pitch-perfect page-turner. Candice also published Redemption Point Book 2 in Crimson Lake Series.

22. Children’s author and illustrator Judith Rossell’s long-awaited thrilling and magical conclusion to her multi-award-winning Stella Montgomery Intrigue series, Wakestone Hall.

23. Presenter Sue Whiting published two books across different ages groups – Beware the Deep Dark Forest for 3-6-year-olds and Missing, a novel for 10 years and up.

24. Children’s picture books presenter, Zanni Louise has had a bumper year with the publication of five picture books: Errol and A Pet Called Nibbles; A School Day Smile; A Birthday Party Trick and A Musical Show in her Tiggy and the Magic Paintbrush series.

25. Creator of AWC’s Creative Writing Quest for Kids, Allison Tait’s The Book of Answers is the second novel in her Ateban Cipher series.

26. Lesley Gibbes wrote a number of poems in the poetry anthology, A Boat of Stars and this year saw paperback releases of her much-loved picture books, Quick as a Wink Fairy Pink and Fluke.

So, a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to everyone published in 2018 and also to all those who have books in the pipeline and with publishers for publication in 2019.

We are thrilled for you and wish you all happy writing and happy reading.

For in the words of Ernest Hemingway: There is no friend as loyal as a book.

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