Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists 2015
We love this year’s list of Best Young Australian Novelists by Sydney Morning Herald. Here’s our thoughts on the five shortlisted authors’ books.
Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of short-story collection Foreign Soil.
Our Head Book Buyer Martin Shaw has been a fierce supporter of Beneba Clarke’s debut short-story collection ever since he first read an early version of it, pre-publication. At the time, he wrote: “With stories of migration and emigration ranging across America, Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia, Clarke’s material is compelling, and her writerly facility utterly extraordinary.” Foreign Soil was also shortlisted for the Readings New Australian Writing Award last year.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the author of short-story collection The Tribe
The Tribe was another title that was shortlisted for the Readings New Australian Writing Award last year. In their report, the judges said: “The suburban narrative is given a vivid cultural specificity not often depicted in contemporary Australian fiction, and Michael Mohammed Ahmad cleverly ties pop-cultural references to myth and traditional stories, creating rifts of humour and warmth in the work.”
Read our judges’ full report of this title, and the rest of the shortlist, here
Alice Pung is the author of young adult novel Laurinda
After two astonishing memoirs, Pung’s first foray into young adult fiction was a favourite among our staff (many of whom weren’t YA readers to start with). Our children’s specialist at Malvern, Athina Clarke, wrote: “…this novel was like a time machine that shot me straight back to my own years in middle secondary school.”
Read Athina’s full review here
Omar Musa is the author of novel Here Come the Dogs
Here Come the Dogs is a hip-hop novel by a unique literary talent. Bookseller Chris Dite writes: “Omar Musa’s new verse novel swaggers charmingly onto the scene. … Here Come the Dogs is beautiful, it’s not preachy or didactic, and it’s ripe with disdain for swathes of its potential audience.”
Ellen Van Neerven is the author of short-story collection Heat and Light
In his review of Van Neerven’s award-winning collection, author Tony Birch wrote: “Many writers attempt to convey the sense of foreboding that exists ‘out there’, beyond the big cities and seaboards of the country. Some fail. Few succeed to the extent that exists between the pages of Heat and Light.”
