Teacher Notes – The Friendly Games

28 April, 2020 Site Manager Leave a comment

Teachers’ Notes for The Friendly Games (pdf, 100 kb)

and the accompanying pdf of John Wing’s letters:

High Country Book Club review Hide

14 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

A big thank you to The Makers Shed, High Country Book Club and to Michael Burge Media for selecting S. J. Morgan’s terrific thriller HIDE as their recent book club read. Love the preview Michael has made for the book. Thanks for supporting Aussie authors.

See it at: https://www.facebook.com/MakersShedGlenInnes/videos/241854090344323/?t=0

Books, Launches

Two New Short Story Collections

2 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

MidnightSun Publishing is excited to announce the joint release of two short story collections: Life, Bound by Marian Matta and Rural Dreams by Margaret Hickey. These debut collections showcase two vibrant and original voices in Australian short fiction. The stories in these collections are sharp, funny, insightful and they linger with you long after you have put the books down. We are so proud to be bringing you two new voices in Australian fiction.

MidnightSun’s Anna Solding says she is excited to be releasing two new collections at the same time. ‘It’s always wonderful to find a short story collection that really grabs you, where every story is as compelling as the last,’ she says. ‘We are lucky enough to be able to offer two collections that are both distinctive and unique by immensely talented debut authors.’

Both Hickey and Matta are equally thrilled that MidnightSun is championing the art of the short story. ‘What I felt when Anna called me was, “at last”,’ says Hickey, ‘because she is the one to have picked my work and recognised the potential. MidnightSun is to be credited, not only for publishing excellent and award-winning works, Continue reading Two New Short Story Collections →

Author

Margaret Hickey

2 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria.

Hickey’s work has been shortlisted and won prizes in many awards, including the AAWP/ASSF Short Story Award and the Grace Marion Award. Margaret holds a PhD in Creative writing and teaches English at La Trobe University.

Margaret’s short story collection, Rural Dreams, will be published by MidnightSun in October 2020.

Title

Rural Dreams

2 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

by Margaret Hickey

Margaret Hickey’s Rural Dreams takes a look at life outside the big smoke, introducing us to the kind of characters you might expect in the country, as well as some you might not.

Funny, heartbreaking and true; the characters in Rural Dreams are the people we know and grew up with. Some of them might even be us. Continue reading Rural Dreams →

Author

Marian Matta

2 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

For decades Marian Matta wrote whatever was called for, from medical articles and historical research to film scripts, but she began concentrating on the short story format in 2006 after being inspired by Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain.

Her stories have subsequently appeared in several anthologies, but Life, Bound is her first solo collection. A grandmother, history tragic, internet junkie and circus student, she lives in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges with her husband, and is pleased to call Heath Ledger her muse. Optimism is her watchword.

Marian’s collection of short stories, Life, Bound, will be published by MidnightSun in October 2020.

Title

Life, Bound

2 April, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

by Marian Matta

Marian Matta’s Life, Bound moves through time and place, following characters who struggle to escape the past and strive to shape the future.

Free agents or captives of our past? In Life, Bound, characters find themselves caught in situations not of their own making, or trapped by ingrained habits, walking in grooves carved out by past events.

An artist’s progress is pleasingly channelled Continue reading Life, Bound →

Appearances

Interview with S. J. Morgan

5 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Here is a fabulous interview with S. J. Morgan about her menacing crime thriller Hide. It will be available as an audio book this year and we are so proud!

https://www.sistersincrime.org.au/you-can-run-but-can-you-hide-qa-with-s-j-morgan/

Author

Hannah Sommerville

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Hannah Sommerville creates enchanting watercolour, pen and pencil drawings in her studio on the South Coast of NSW. The daughter of a ceramicist, Hannah earned a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Arts and Graphic Design) at the University of Wollongong in 2006. Hannah began illustrating after the arrival of her young children from whom she draws inspiration. Hannah is a storyteller, who enjoys creating picture books that capture the imagination, tenderness and playfulness that surround children and family life. Her picture book Digby & Claude, written by Emma Allen, made the CBCA 2019 Notables list.

Author

Mike Dumbleton

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Mike Dumbleton is an award-winning picture book writer with nine ‘Notable Books’ selected by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. His book, Muddled-up Farm, was the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year, 2004, and Cat was a CBCA Honour Book, 2008. Mike has also received a Federal Minister’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Improving Literacy for his work as an educator and a writer over an extended period of time. In his spare time, Mike enjoys reading, travelling, trying to keep fit, listening to jazz and watching sport.

Title

Anisa’s Alphabet

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Written by Mike Dumbleton, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville

HB 32 | 280 x 240
ISBN: 9781925227574 | $29.99
Picture book | March 2020
MidnightSun Publishing
Distributed by NewSouth Books

For many refugees the alphabet represents the start of a new language and a new future, but Anisa’s Alphabet is different.

A poignant and highly imaginative telling of one girl’s story which will appeal to children and adults alike … Come with Anisa, and see things through her eyes. Continue reading Anisa’s Alphabet →

Author

Dominic Carew

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief 2 Comments

Dominic Carew is a lawyer and writer from Sydney. He has practised law in Sydney, London, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands in leading global law firms and financial institutions. He has an MA in Creative Writing from UTS, for which he received an Outstanding Student Award. Dominic has won or been shortlisted for many major short story awards, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

No Neat Endings is Dominic’s first collection of stories.

Title

No Neat Endings

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief 3 Comments

by Dominic Carew

A young man can’t make love. A pedantic father spots a blemish in his new shorts and returns to the shop to demand their exchange. A girl rocks up to a Tinder date wearing a helmet.

In nineteen short stories, No Neat Endings pits its characters against the challenges of modern life, sex, love, work and the world. Continue reading No Neat Endings →

Reviews

Carmel Bird Reviews No Neat Endings

31 January, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Fabulous to see four collections reviewed by the wonderful Carmel Bird in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of them being Dominic Carew’s No Neat Endings. Yay!

See the review here.

Reviews

NZbooklovers Reviews Hide

2 December, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

The great reviews of S.J. Morgan‘s Hide keep coming. Thank you NZbooklovers for this one. Hide will make a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who likes books with suspense and that special just-one-more-chapter-quality.

https://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/hide-by-s-j-morgan

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