Summer reading wrap-up

Dive into summer reading recommendations from the Reading, Writing & Ideas team, and recommendations from some of the writers, award-winners and judges we've worked with this year. Big thanks to Laura Jean McKay, Melanie Saward, Jack Vening and Steve MinOn for sharing what they've loved in 2023. It's always a pleasure to hear what writers are working on and the stories that have inspired and invigorated them.

Read on and find your next great book before we see you again in 2024!

Laura Jean McKay is the author of the Arthur C Clarke award-winning The Animals in That Country and the recent collection Gunflower. 

"This year I just adored Mirandi Riwoe’s new novel Sunbirds. A sweeping war epic and an intimate study of Dutch colonisation in Indonesia – Sunbirds had me completely transfixed and hasn’t let me go. 
 
"In 2024, I’m keen keen keen to get into Ceridwen Dovey’s forthcoming Only the Astronauts, a short story collection narrated by objects in space that looks to be as mind-blowing as Dovey’s Only the Animals." 

Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples. She is a writer, editor, and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich). This year, Melanie won a Queensland Writers Fellowship.

"I've read close to 200 books this year so I don't know if I can choose just one! One of the best books I've read this year is Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven – surprising because I'm not a sporty person at all. But I also must mention Erin Riley's debut memoir, A Real Piece of Work and Sara M Saleh's debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living. As for podcasts, Maintenance Phase owns me.  

"Next year I can't wait for the release of Sharlene Allsopp's The Great Undoing in February (my prediction is it's going to sweep the awards). I'll be getting ready for the release of my romantic comedy book Love Unleashed and working on some tween romances with Brooke Blurton.  

Jack Vening is a writer of fiction, comedy and TV living and working in Naarm. Jack chaired the 2023 panel of judges for the Young Writers Award.

"A book I've loved this year is Parker Young's story collection Cheap Therapist Says You're Insane, published by Future Tense books. Funny, weird and very deft stories about people who seem to be strangers to themselves as much as everyone around them. It's the kind of thing that makes you remember again how vital independent publishers are for the world. 

"Something I'm looking forward to in 2024 is the long-awaited publication of You, Me, and Ulysses S. Grant, a hodge-podge semi-factual comedy biography by the civil war general/US president by Brad Neely. Neely is a cartoonist and what I'd call an actual genius of comedy writing, having created some of the funniest works to ever appear on the internet or anywhere (see Baby Cakes and Wizard People, Dear Reader). He's been talking about this book for many years, and I can't believe it's almost upon us."

Steve MinOn won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards. He lives in Meanjin/Brisbane. 

"I motored through my reading in 2023. The award lists, the work of friends and a few hyped titles. But with Angela O’Keeffe’s The Sitter, I loitered. I kept putting her book down, and then after a day I’d pick it up again. I would read a couple of sentences like this one: “We did not make love so much as mate, armless, like owls,” and then I’d have to stop and savour Angela’s choices, her craft. I just didn’t want The Sitter to end. 

"Come 2024, I’ll be editing and completing my debut, First Name Second Name, the manuscript that won me a Queensland Literary Award. It will be published by UQP, most likely in September. Content edits, line edits, proof reading, cover designs, pre-publicity and then the launch, working the bookshops, the festivals and the book clubs if they’ll have me. It’s going to be a busy year and I’m excited."

The Reading, Writing & Ideas (RWI) team is enthusiastically pro-beach reading. As we close out the year and wish you a safe, healthy and happy holidays, here are a few final must-read suggestions from RWI staff.

"Close to the Subject is the debut collection from Bundjalung and Kullilli man Daniel Browning. This genre-defying collection features poetry, journalism, playscript, memoir, criticism, and transcriptions of interviews and documentaries from Browning’s impressive body of work. A must-read!" – Darby, Editor Intern, black&write!  

"The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat is a stunning collection from Sydney poet, human rights activist, community organiser, and refugee campaigner Sara M Saleh. Saleh’s first full-length poetry collection is an exquisite, multilayered selection of poems from one of the most exciting and attentive poets writing today." – Grace, Editor, black&write! 

"From Salt to Jam – this recipe book by Brisbane author Katrina Meynink is based on creating foundational sprinkles, pastes, sauces and jams that then inspire delicious recipes like Spicy zhug chicken pie or Jalapeno-jam-addled fish burritos. My recipe book club celebrated From Salt to Jam and the results were scrumptious." – Nat, Coordinator, RWI 

"Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (featuring a British-Palestinian actress, life in contemporary West Bank, a theatre troupe rehearsing Hamlet) is elegant and captivating. Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (featuring Aboriginal inhabitants of now-Brisbane, migrants and convicts, multiple timelines 170 years apart, threads of love and resistance) is funny and devastating. And the deeply moving Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan is the horse-trainer-story-told-in-fragments you didn’t know you needed." – Laura, Project Officer, RWI 

See you in 2024 for more books, writing, stories, ideas, fellowships, awards, and literary conversations!