Welcome back to Aurora Australis, a monthly round-up of publishing news and highlights from Australia and New Zealand!
Read on to find out about new art, new stories, new collections, and awards shortlists…
There’s a new Margo Lanagan collection in town, and the cover has just been released and we are all very excited. The collection contains ten reprints and three new stories; it’s due in May.
Christopher Rowe may not be Australian but Kathleen Jennings is, which means that this cover reveal for Telling the Map (seen above) definitely counts as interesting news! (I’m sure the book will be great too.)
Angela Slatter is very, very busy. She now has a page on Patreon, where there’s lots of different levels at which to support the writing of this award-winning author, so consider throwing some money her way. The launch of her second novel Corpselight is due for July—it’s the follow-up to Vigil… you maybe want to check below, in the bit about the Locus Recommended Reading List, about that. And in yet other exciting Slatter news, she’s been awarded Copyright Agency funding to finish the (as-yet unhoused) novel version of the novella “The Briar Book of the Dead”. Set in the universe of her collections/mosaics Sourdough and Bitterwood Bible, I approve of the Agency’s good taste. Anni’s not a witch, but at her grandmother’s funeral she has an accident:
she can suddenly speak with the dead. The ghosts demand her aid for they cannot pass over until their secrets and sins are uncovered. But time is running out for Anni Briar, and she knows all too well that sometimes the wood-wife isn’t made of branches and twigs. Sometimes only flesh and blood can atone for wrongs done. Sometimes witches must burn their own.
Slatter also has a short story appearing in Mark Morris’ horror anthology for Titan Books, New Fears 1, and she’s being Guest of Honour at Conflux (Canberra convention) and at GenreCon in Brisbane!
The remarkable Greg Egan is set to self-publish his new novel, Dichronauts, in March as an ebook for the UK and Australia; a print edition for North America will follow in the middle of the year. Just listen to this blurb:
Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards.
… tell me you’re not intrigued.
Awards news: the Aurealis Awards finalists have been released! There’s a pretty remarkable overview of Australian writers represented in the lists, from long-established to those just breaking into the scene; that’s not just the writers but the publishers too. If you want an overview of Australian publications from 2016, that list is a pretty good place to start.
Not quite awards but the prelude to such: the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2016 is up! We’re very proud of the Australians on the list: Foz Meadows in Novel—Fantasy (An Accident of Stars); Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Gemina), and Garth Nix (Goldenhand), in Young Adult; Angela Slatter in First Novel (for Vigil) and Collection (A Feast of Sorrows); Jack Dann (Dreaming in the Dark) and Jonathan Strahan (Bridging Infinity, Drowned World) in Anthologies (original) and Strahan again (Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol 10) in Anthologies (reprint). The Strahan original anthologies have a number of stories represented in the short fiction categories, too.
Happening in Australia, but in case you wanted to visit: GenreCon registrations are now open (10-12 November). Happening in Brisbane, the international guests are Nalini Singh and Delilah S Dawson.
(This one is only for Australians, but for those of you reading: NAFF nominations are open! The fan fund is intended to help Australian fans get to the national convention, which this year is in Melbourne.)
Got information for me about New Zealand and Australian spec fic releases? Send it to me!
Alexandra Pierce reads, teaches, blogs, podcasts, cooks, knits, runs, eats, sleeps, and observes the stars. Not necessarily in that order of priority. She is a Christian, a feminist, and an Australian. She can be found at her website, and on the Galactic Suburbia podcast.
