GUEST POST: Would you like a dash of sunshine with your noir? by Lisa Walker

Posted on 28 July 2021 by Poppy Nwosu

We’re celebrating the publication of Lisa Walker’s new young adult fiction novel this week, Trouble is my Business. This second Olivia Grace novel is another rip-roaring mystery, with nods to Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes, and a flavour of Veronica Mars. This Byron Bay set caper will definitely keep you warm this winter!

The release of Trouble is My Business coincides perfectly with an exciting announcement from Sisters in Crime. Lisa’s first Olivia Grace mystery, The Girl with the Gold Bikini, has been shortlisted for two awards in this year’s Davitt Awards! Lisa has been shortlisted in both the YA and debut crime category.

Both Olivia Grace mysteries are set on the Gold Coast and in Byron Bay, where sunny facades hide deeper, darker stories. Read on for Lisa Walker’s thoughts about ‘sunshine noir’, and setting her teen detective novel on the sun-drenched east coast of Australia.

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BEHIND THE BOOKS: Fred Guilhaus on Road Rage

Posted on 21 October 2020 by Maddy Sexton

In this edition of Behind the Books, Fred Guilhaus answers all of our burning questions about his new novel, Road Rage.

Close friends cycle to escape the pressures of big city living. A vehicle cuts them down from behind, causing serious injury. Is this road rage, car versus bike? Or is it a copycat terrorist attack?

Road Rage challenges notions of ‘them and us’, right and wrong. In the revelations of each life’s journey, Fred Guilhaus paints a gripping tale of modern life, with remarkable twists and turns.

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New Non-Fiction for 2021: Endo Days by Libby Trainor Parker

Posted on 3 August 2020 by Jo Case

We’re delighted to officially announce the acquisition of world rights to Libby Trainor Parker’s debut book, with the working title of Endo Days: Life, Love and Laughs with Endometriosis, which Wakefield Press will publish in 2021.

One in ten people in Australia are living with endometriosis and countless others are supporting them, caring for them, championing various treatments and being impacted by this incurable condition. Endo Days is a look at the stories of those within the endo community, as told to journalist and educator Libby Trainor Parker, who was diagnosed with endometriosis aged thirty-six, and has dedicated the past seven years to finding the lighter side of chronic illness. Endo Days is a frank, often funny and honest memoir told in a narrative journalism style, with Libby’s own story as the central narrative, drawing on interviews with others with endometriosis (both women, men and non-binary), their partners – male and female, doctors and specialists, researchers and the wider endo community.

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BEHIND THE BOOK: Valerie Volk and her search for Anna

Posted on 15 July 2020 by Maddy Sexton

In a new series on the Wakefield Press blog, we’ve asked authors to write about the background, inspiration, research and work that goes into writing a book.

This week, Valerie Volk writes about her search for her distant relative Anna Werner, who in 1889 left the German town of Lewin to search for her son in the distant colonies of Australia. This search culminated in Valerie’s novel, In Search of Anna, a story that Valerie describes as a journey book, historical fiction, a study of motherhood, a detective novel, and a romantic tale all rolled into one.

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BEHIND THE BOOK: Anne Black on George Isaacs

Posted on 7 July 2020 by Maddy Sexton

In a new series on the Wakefield Press blog, we’ve asked authors to write about the background, inspiration, research and work that goes into writing a book.

This week features Anne Black, author of Pendragon: The life of George Isaacs, Colonial wordsmith. Anne writes about her first encounter with little-known literary icon George Isaacs, and the death certificate that sparked an obsession and a biography.

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POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘The Calling’ by Geoff Goodfellow

Posted on 12 June 2020 by Maddy Sexton

This week, the poetry spotlight shines once again on award-winning poet Geoff Goodfellow. This week’s poem comes from Waltzing with Jack Dancer: A slow dance with cancer. The collection was written by Geoff in the aftermath of his diagnosis with throat cancer, and chronicles his experiences with treatment, hospitals, and the Big C.

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GUEST POST: Ed Pegge on star power

Posted on 10 June 2020 by Maddy Sexton

Hilarious, charming and self-effacing, meet Edmund Pegge, one of Australia’s most prolific supporting actors.

Travelling between England and Australia and working on stage, in film and on television for over fifty years, Ed Pegge knows all the tricks and all the trials of a working actor’s life.

In this guest post, Ed writes about the nuances of fame, and the benefits of taking a brief rest every now and again from being a star.

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GUEST POST: Stephen Orr on Auschwitz, guilt, and responsibility

Posted on 4 June 2020 by Maddy Sexton

What right do I have to talk about this place? What do I know about it? How much can I feel, can I see and smell and hear the suffering?

These are the questions author and teacher Stephen Orr asked himself after visiting the remains of the Auschwitz prison camp. In this guest post, Stephen writes of the importance of feeling pain that is not necessarily yours, and of remembering what has happened in the past as a way of improving the future.

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AUTHOR GUEST POST: Wendy Scarfe on revisiting the past

Posted on 27 May 2020 by Poppy Nwosu

In this special guest post, Wendy Scarfe talks about her experiences writing A Mouthful of Petals with her late husband, Allan Scarfe.

A Mouthful of Petals is a nonfiction account of three years working in an Indian village in the early 1960s. Previously published, it became a minor classic, and has since been re-released by Wakefield Press. This new edition includes an account of Wendy Scarfe’s return trip to Sokhodeora during a famine in the late 1960s, and how those who live in Bihar state fare in the early twenty-first century.

‘It describes with warmth, sympathy and occasional near-despair, the life of an Indian village from the inside’ – Nancy Cato

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GUEST POST: John Read on the lessons lockdown has to offer

Posted on 19 May 2020 by Maddy Sexton

John Read is used to working remotely, and often in accidental isolation. An ecologist and author, John lives on South Australia’s largest privately managed nature reserve with his wife, children and endangered malleefowl and marsupials.

We asked John to write about his experiences living and working in the most remote parts of Australia, and how things have changed (if at all) as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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