Andrew Roff’s debut short-story collection, The Teeth of a Slow Machine, is a daring, irreverent exploration of the conundrums of contemporary life, and what it means to be a human. In this guest post, Andrew takes us through the design process for the cover of his collection.

Many thanks to the covers’ designer, Duncan Blachford of Typography Studio, who has generously allowed us to reproduce some of his early cover concepts. Read on to see the stories behind the concepts, and to see the winning design.

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The Wakefield Weekly Writing Competition is an exciting monthly challenge for authors Australia-wide. Each month, we’ll release a new prompt for authors to respond to. The prize for the winning author (or authors) includes gift vouchers and the publication of winning entries right here on the Wakefield Press blog.

We’d like the competition to help writers and researchers build readerships, help spread Wakefield’s own name and news of our books, and, who knows, perhaps help seed a few books of the future. 

We announce the new prompt once a month in our newsletter, with this page updated shortly afterwards. The best way to keep on top of the current prompt is to subscribe to the Wakefield Weekly here.

Read on for the boring things, like the terms and conditions, and the fun things, like the prizes on offer!

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Roger Zubrinich and Judy Peters like to travel. A lot. Prior to the pandemic, the couple would escape the Australian winter and head to Europe for the summer, traipsing through countries via a hire car.

With overseas travel now something of a dream, Roger has decided to revisit some of their destinations in writing. This week, Roger and Judy make their way into the centre of Zamosc in Poland. They find beauty in the town’s design and the colourful burgher houses surrounding the town square, and learn with respect the sad history that hovers in this wonderful place.

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Wakefield Press author Elizabeth Hutchins’ recently released Troop Train is a coming-of-age novel set in the chaos of the Second World War. This guest post is a story of a different kind of chaos – camping in the Australian desert.

Elizabeth has been kind enough to share her story of being one of the first tourists to cross the Tanami Desert. In 2010, the story was a finalist in the Northern Territory Literary Awards. We’re thrilled to share Elizabeth’s ‘Tanami Tourists’.

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Roger Zubrinich and Judy Peters like to travel. A lot. Prior to the pandemic, the couple would escape the Australian winter and head to Europe for the summer, traipsing through countries via a hire car.

With overseas travel now something of a dream, Roger has decided to revisit some of their destinations in writing. This week, Roger takes us to one of his favourite places to holida with Judy: Piran.

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Wakefield Press have been pleased to host Flinders University Honours student Melanie Ross working as an intern in our office. During her time here, Melanie gravitated towards Stephanie Radok’s Becoming a Bird: Untold stories about art, a reflection on art and its purposes.

In twelve meditative stories, Stephanie Radok discovers that, mostly, we are all at home everywhere in this world.

In a beautiful essay for Sydney Review of Books, Martin Edmond writes that ‘The direction of indirection, or the discipline of indiscipline (to quote Frank Moorhouse) gives her writing a flow that is beguiling as well as relaxing.’

Read on for Melanie’s thoughtful response to the book.

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In late October, we had the pleasure of gathering once again in the back room of the Wheatsheaf Hotel for the double book launch of Jelena Dinic’s In the Room with the She Wolf and Kate Llewellyn’s Harbour.

Supported by the brilliant team from No Wave poetry, helmed by Dom Symes, the event was an enormous success. We’re pleased now to be sharing Mike Ladd‘s wonderful launch speech for In the Room with the She Wolf, as well as Jelena’s thoughtful response.

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Every thriving reading community needs good bookshops, and good booksellers. In our Meet the Bookseller series, we introduce you to some of Australia’s most loved booksellers.
If you’d like to nominate a bookshop or bookseller to be featured, please let us know in comments, or email maddy@wakefieldpress.com.au.

This week, meet Kate Treloar and Nick Patrick, co-owners of Orchard Bookshop in the Adelaide Central Markets. Formerly known as Adelaide’s Pop-up Bookshop, Kate and Nick are old hands at the bookselling trade, with 13 years under their belts.

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Roger Zubrinich and Judy Peters like to travel. A lot. Prior to the pandemic, the couple would escape the Australian winter and head to Europe for the summer, traipsing through countries via a hire car.

With overseas travel now something of a dream, Roger has decided to revisit some of their destinations in writing. This week, Roger and Judy battle a rattling Renault, left-handed driving, and apathetic mechanics.

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Roger Zubrinich and Judy Peters like to travel. A lot. Prior to the pandemic, the couple would escape the Australian winter and head to Europe for the summer, traipsing through countries via a hire car.

With overseas travel now something of a dream, Roger has decided to revisit some of their destinations in writing. This week, Roger and Judy encounter difficulties leaving Nice, leading to a tale of stupidity in four acts.

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