All posts by Editor-in-Chief

Tayta’s Secret Ingredient

Tatyas Secret Ingredient cover
Tatyas Secret Ingredient cover
by Amal Abu-Eid (author) and Cara King (illustrator)

HB 32 | 280 x 240 | ISBN: 9781922858122 | $29.99
Picture book for all ages
MidnightSun Publishing | March 2024
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Billy loves Harmony Day. He loves the colours, the clothes and especially the food. This year Tayta is making kaak, a Lebanese treat, for Billy to share with his class but he can’t share the recipe because Tayta bakes with a secret ingredient.

Tayta’s Secret Ingredient is a heart-warming inter-generational story about everyday life in multicultural Australia, where a curious boy takes centre stage alongside his beloved Continue reading Tayta’s Secret Ingredient

Amal Abou-Eid

Amal Abou-Eid
Amal Abou-Eid
Amal Abou-Eid is a passionate educator, mother and author of multiple self-published books. Amal started writing children’s books when she realised she couldn’t find books for her children with characters and stories that related to their Muslim Lebanese Australian identity. She believes in the power of representation and inclusion in books and writes stories which depict characters and events her family and community can identify with and relate to. She hopes her stories can educate, entertain and Continue reading Amal Abou-Eid

A Way Home

A Way Home cover
A Way Home cover
by Emily Brewin

PB | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858382 | $19.99
Young Adult | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | 25 April 2024
Distributed by NewSouth Books
AGE GUIDE: 13+

Sixteen-year-old Grace lives under a bridge in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s cold and wet, but hidden. Safe, at least, until she can go home.

When winter drives her to the City Library one morning, Grace meets Louie, a weird kid with his own problems, and discovers a community piano. The piano reminds Grace of her mum, a celebrated pianist whose mental illness makes life a rollercoaster — and not always a fun one.

When Grace comes up with a plan to find the help she and Mum need, life begins to look up. But things don’t work out as Grace imagines and suddenly her world’s turned upside down again, and maybe for good this time.

A Way Home is a big-hearted novel that explores the complexities of growing up with a parent who is struggling, and about the places and people we call home. Continue reading A Way Home

Emily Brewin

Emily Brewin
Emily Brewin
Emily Brewin is a Melbourne author, copywriter, and learning designer. Her first novel, Hello, Goodbye, was published in 2017 and her second, Small Blessings, in 2019. A Way Home is her first YA novel. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies: Into Your Arms: Nick Cave’s Songs Reimagined by Fremantle Press, We’ll Stand In That Place and Other Stories by Margaret River Press and the Bristol Short Story Anthology — Volume 10. She has written for The Age, ABC Education, Continue reading Emily Brewin

Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts

Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts cover
Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts cover
by Allen C. Jones

PB 224 | 198 x 129 |
ISBN: 9781922858344 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | November 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

One part absurd humor, one part social commentary, Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts throws the most unlikely couples into bed together. This hilarious book includes a man mistaken for a bush, a mermaid refugee, a bird who dreams of weaponizing cats, a boy with a computer for a face, and a woman in love with a severed arm. These and more are the weird and lonely characters who drag their broken hearts through this collection, diligently searching for someone to stitch them up.

Allen C. Jones’ debut collection reads like a meeting between Peter Carey, Nikolai Gogol, and Lydia Millet where the task at hand is to write a love story. While the surface of these stories seems humorous and even absurd, beneath it runs a desperate nostalgia carried by a set of characters who will do anything to force their way back into love. Continue reading Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts

Allen C. Jones

Allen C. Jones
Allen C. Jones

Allen C. Jones is an award-winning writer from California. He received an MFA in poetry from the University of New Mexico and a PhD in English from University of Louisiana. He has lived and taught in Spain, Mexico, Korea & China, and presently serves as associate professor of literature and culture at the University of Stavanger, Norway. His scholarly work investigates experimental writing and literary game pedagogy.

His debut novel Her Death Was Also Water came out in 2022 with MidnightSun Publishing, and his debut book of poetry, Son of a Cult, is out in 2023 with Kelsay Books, USA. His writing appears widely in print and online. Find links to it Continue reading Allen C. Jones

Strangely Enough

Strangely Enough cover
Strangely Enough cover
edited by Gillian Hagenus

PB 240 | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858313 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | November 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Neglected by society, a group of caravanning 60-somethings encounter a place where time stops. A baby swims in a witch’s cauldron. A statue of Jesus grows fat off fish and chips. An ancient Egyptian God swims through the sewers under a suburban street and a desperate family harvests the fingers they find growing in their soil after their final food supplies wither.

Strangely Enough is a celebration of the far-reaching possibilities of short fiction from some of Australia’s most creatively ambitious minds. Surreal and haunting, funny and gripping, these intensely strange tales encompass what it means to grieve, love, wonder, fear and change, each ultimately offering something entirely unexpected and strangely, deeply Continue reading Strangely Enough

Gillian Hagenus

Gillian Hagenus
Gillian Hagenus
Gillian Hagenus is a writer, editor and book devourer living and working on Kaurna land in South Australia. Her short fiction has appeared in various journals across Australia, including Voiceworks, SWAMP, Social Alternatives and Aniko Press, and internationally in The Antigonish Review. She has a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide, where her thesis focused on Australian Suburban Gothic fiction. In 2022, her unpublished short story collection was the winner of the AAWP/UWA Publishing Chapter One Prize. In her free time, Gillian helps Continue reading Gillian Hagenus

Polluted Sex

Polluted Sex cover
Polluted Sex cover
by Lauren Foley

PB 240 | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858214 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK.

A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend.

Two ungendered characters contest the same female body.

A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied.

Lauren Foley’s debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.
Continue reading Polluted Sex

The Weaver

The Weaver cover
The Weaver cover
by Melanie Kanicky

PB 352 | 198 x 129 | ISBN: 9781922858283 | $19.99
Young Adult | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

In a remote village, bordered by woods and an endless winter, Saatcha lives in the attic of her ailing father’s blacksmithery. As her father’s health fades and he is no longer able to work, Saatcha takes it upon herself to keep the forge running.

But when a pair of thieves appear in the dead of night, Saatcha’s duty to her father is torn from her. Forced to leave her home behind, the bounds of magic that once held Saatcha begin to slip away.
Continue reading The Weaver

Melanie Kanicky

Melanie Kanicky
Melanie Kanicky
Melanie Kanicky is a Melbourne-based author. Born in the Yarra Valley, Melanie has a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Film & Television) from Deakin University, and is currently completing her Master’s Degree in Writing & Literature with a focus on creative writing. Outside of her studies, Melanie currently manages a bookstore, where she delights in sharing her love of reading and literature with others. Her short fiction has appeared in the Wyndham Writing Awards Anthology and the Forty South Short Story Anthology, as well as being shortlisted for the Continue reading Melanie Kanicky

Raised by Moths

Raised by Moths cover
Raised by Moths cover
by Charlie Archbold and Michelle Conn

HB 32 | 230 x 270 | ISBN: 9781922858184 | $29.99
Picture Book | MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Willow jumps on the Ferris Wheel and is intrigued to see a boy surrounded by moths.

As they travel high above the fairground he tells her the reason why the moths love him so much: he was raised by moths. Wonderfully fantastical and thought-provoking with stunning illustrations, Raised by Moths is quite unlike anything you’ve read before.
Continue reading Raised by Moths

Charlie Archbold

Charlie Archbold
Charlie Archbold
Charlie Archbold is a writer and educator. She has worked in Australia, the UK, and in Indonesia. Her middle grade novel The Sugarcane Kids and the Red Bottomed Boat won the 2022 Readings Children’s Prize. It was shortlisted for the Text Prize and was a 2023 CBCA Notable book. Charlie’s debut YA novel Mallee Boys was a 2018 CBCA Honour book. Her 2020 YA novel Indigo Owl is a science fiction adventure. Raised by Moths is Charlie’s first picture book. Her blogs, short stories and poems are about Continue reading Charlie Archbold