Olivia’s Voice

8 March, 2017 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

written by Mike Lucas, illustrated by Jennifer Harrison

HB 32 | 210 x 297 | ISBN: 9781925227192
$26.99 | Picture book
MidnightSun Publishing | March 2017
Distributed by NewSouth Books

In March, MidnightSun released Olivia’s Voice, the stunning debut picture book from author/illustrator team Mike Lucas and Jennifer Harrison. With evocative language and beautifully detailed illustrations, Lucas and Harrison bring to life the vivid experiences of Olivia as she explores a silent world full of vibrant colour, friendship and Continue reading Olivia’s Voice →

Title

King of the Outback

8 March, 2017 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

From the award-winning writer/illustrator team who brought you Tom the Outback Mailman.

by Kristin Weidenbach, illustrated by Timothy Ide

HB 32 | 260 x 290 | ISBN 9781925227246
$26.99 | Non-fiction picture book
MidnightSun Publishing | May 2017
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Sidney Kidman runs away from home at thirteen and travels to the outback on a one-eyed horse. He finds stray cows in the scrub, swims across rivers by hanging on to a bullock’s tail and dreams of having the biggest herd of cattle in Australia.

Many years later, when the workers on Sid’s cattle station organise a giant rodeo for Sid’s birthday party the cattle from the bush take fright in the city. People panic and horses bolt. Can the Kidman stockmen save the day? Continue reading King of the Outback →

Author

Allayne Webster

8 March, 2017 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Allayne Webster is Adelaide based Children’s and Young Adult Fiction author who grew up in rural South Australia. Her middle grade title Paper Planes was a 2016 Children’s Book Council Notable Book and shortlisted for the 2016 Children’s Awards for Literature. Allayne is the author of two Young Adult novels (plus a third with Penguin Random House – due for release Feb 2018) and the author of two Junior Fiction novels with Omnibus Scholastic. Allayne is also the proud recipient of three South Australian Arts Grants. She travelled to Paris in 2010, and suitably inspired, she wrote A Cardboard Palace.

Uncategorized

Happy Birthday to us!

9 February, 2017 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

MidnightSun is turning five!

From our humble beginnings, with Anna Solding’s The Hum of Concrete in 2012, we have grown to one of the largest publishers in South Australia, publishing everything from picture books to adult literary fiction. So many people have helped along the way: designers, writers, illustrators, editors and readers. 2017 looks to be an incredibly exciting year with at least seven books published. It’s our Year of Stories so three of them will be short story collections, beginning with Lucy Durneen’s exquisite Wild Gestures. To thank you all for your support, we are having our first ever sale. We’d like to offer all our books at 20% discount from 9-11 February 2017. Don’t hesitate. Just go to our web shop and put in the coupon code HappyBirthday.

Appearances

Patrick Allington’s launch speech for We. Are. Family.

2 November, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Patrick Allington launched Paul Mitchell’s We. Are. Family. with a terrific speech in Adelaide on Friday 9 September 2016. Several people have asked for the speech, so here it is, in all its glory:

What can I tell you about Paul Mitchell’s We. Are. Family? … What I won’t do is introduce the characters or give you a detailed account of the plot. You should experience those things for yourself. The story unfolds less like a flower opening (despite the arresting cover image) and more like the pulling of sticks, one at a time, from a great pile of wood. And when you read this book, Continue reading Patrick Allington’s launch speech for We. Are. Family. →

Uncategorized

Call for submissions – Love anthology

21 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief 4 Comments

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Submissions now due Friday 2 December 2016!

MidnightSun has teamed up with Flinders University to create a short story anthology in 2017. The theme is ‘Ain’t Love Grand’ because it’s about romantic love, in any of its guises. We would particularly love unusual interpretations of the theme. Word length is max. 3000 words. Submissions will be judged blind, so please don’t put your name on the submission itself. Continue reading Call for submissions – Love anthology →

Books, Reviews

Wild Gestures Review

4 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

The first review of Lucy Durneen’s short story collection Wild Gestures has appeared in Books+Publishing and we couldn’t possibly be happier:

‘This is an intriguing collection of short stories where things are seldom what they seem and characters are preoccupied by their past actions. Shaped less by plot than by precise and evocative imagery, they are psychologically acute portraits of people dealing with grief or change.’

‘The stories can be bleakly funny; when one character’s heart freezes over, she compares the spread of ice with the spread of cancer, coolly remarking that both seem inevitable if you don’t heed the standard warnings.’

‘There is something vicious at the heart of these stories, something dark which Continue reading Wild Gestures Review →

Author

Lucy Durneen

2 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Lucy Durneen lectures in English and Creative Writing in Plymouth, England, and is Assistant Editor of the literary journal Short Fiction. Her short stories, poetry and non-fiction have appeared in World Literature Today, The Manchester Review, The Letters Page, The Lightship Anthology and Litro, amongst other places.

She has been shortlisted four times for the Bridport Prize, Highly Commended in the 2014 Manchester Fiction Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won the 2017 Saboteur Award.

Lucy’s short story collection Wild Gestures was published by MidnightSun in January 2017.

Title

Wild Gestures

2 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

by Lucy Durneen

A daughter flies into a painting to escape her overprotective mother. An exchange student sees green lights in the sky above South America and fears the worst. Against the backdrop of an Italian bird market, a holidaying teenager makes her first attempt at seduction. And an affair that never happens is deconstructed while tigers pace in a European zoo.

Wild Gestures is the first collection from British writer Lucy Durneen, Continue reading Wild Gestures →

Author

Paul Mitchell

2 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Paul Mitchell’s wry and moving considerations of society’s undercurrents chronicle an unsettlingly recognisable Australia. His three poetry collections have received national prizes and wide acclaim, and his short story collection Dodging the Bull was included in the 2008 The Age Summer Read program. He is also a playwright, screenwriter and essayist.

Mitchell’s varied oeuvre explores the beauty in the seemingly mundane, the troubled history of Australian masculinity, and finds spirituality in the murky depths of life. He has continued this exploration with his sensitive and rugged first novel, We. Are. Family.

Author

Z F Kingbolt

2 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Z.F. Kingbolt has had a varied career including lawyer, scientist, engineer, journalist, biologist and teacher, so it took a while to discover that writing books was the best thing ever. A slitherphobe, Kingbolt hates snakes and burnt toast, but loves gaming, technology, geology and Continue reading Z F Kingbolt →

Title

Into Tordon

2 October, 2016 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

by Z.F. Kingbolt

Only champions dare to enter!

Thirteen-year-old Beth has been waiting for weeks to play in the championship of her favourite online game, Tordon. Now tribes of beastmen roar through her speakers. Game on! She plays to win, until her gaming nemesis Zane challenges her Continue reading Into Tordon →

Appearances

CBCA Awards

22 August, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

MidnightSun Publishing is extremely honoured and proud that our first picture book, One Step at a Time written by Jane Jolly and illustrated by Sally Heinrich, has been chosen as an Honour Book in this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards.

You can read more about the book and the CBCA Awards in this Continue reading CBCA Awards →

Uncategorized

Introducing Paul Mitchell

10 August, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Paul Mitchell is the latest writer to join the MidnightSun family. Here he is talking about ideas for his novel We. Are. Family. which is due out in September 2016

Ideas – guest post by Paul Mitchell

My friend D. asked me a question I hadn’t heard for a long time: where do you get your ideas? We were sitting at a Castlemaine pub’s outside table. The night was almost freezing, we were dressed in great coats and beanies, and avoiding the trad jazz playing in the main bar. We were drinking pints of beer that were Continue reading Introducing Paul Mitchell →

Title

We. Are. Family.

5 July, 2016 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

by Paul Mitchell

Kick the darkness until it bleeds

Three generations are forced to confront the pervasive violence that hangs over them like a ghost, and the distances to which they have carried their forebears’ pain.

We. Are. Family. is a sensitive and rugged episodic novel which ruminates on the damaging idea of Australian masculinity with tenderness and dry humour. Paul Mitchell unravels the twisting threads that tie us to the past and the trauma that Continue reading We. Are. Family. →

Publishing Brilliance