The many forms of Christmas

Here's a wonderful little view of the many forms of Christmas from Margaret Merrilees's Fables Queer and Familiar, complete with illustrations by Chia Moan. Every little vignette in this novel is equal parts touching and hilarious. Read on and you'll see what I mean … Mr Stretton, Victoria’s Reception teacher, has reached that pinnacle of school life – the end-of-year concert. Traditionally Reception and Year One open the show with a segment based around the manger. Since his first year…

The Stella Count 2014

The Stella Count for 2014 is in! This wonderful little study, conducted by the same people behind the Stella Prize, looks at gender (im)balance in book reviews across Australia. You can see the full results here. What's the take-home message? Most of the regionals seem to be getting things right. There are fairly equal numbers of male and female reviewers, ditto for the gender of authors reviewed. The nationals – the Australian, the Financial Review…

We heart Radio Adelaide

Just a reminder (on this lovely, not-too-hot Monday) of how great Radio Adelaide is. Diana Chessell, author of Adelaide's Dissenting Headmaster, was interviewed by the very well-spoken and engaging Ewart Shaw on Sunday. Listen to their fascinating conversation on John Lorenzo Young here. Meanwhile, Mag Merrilees continues her instalments of Fables Queer and Familiar at Radio Adelaide, all of which are available here. And then there have been interviews with Kate Strohm, Dino Hodge, Janis…

Fables Queer and Familiar launch ...

What's hilariously funny and poignantly tender, written by an award-winning Wakefieldian, and about to be a big Christmas seller? This guy! Launching as part of Feast Festival next Tuesday, with music by Triptick and wines by our very favourite sponsors, Fox Creek, Fables Queer and Familiar is one of our big (little) books for this summer. Written by the always-wonderful Margaret Merrilees, who's been shortlisted left, right and centre for The First Week, and adapted…

Another accolade for The First Week

Margaret Merrilees can add another feather to her cap*. Her debut novel The First Week has been shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award, a very cool award that celebrates work that depicts 'women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society'. Read an extract of The First Week here or skip that and buy a copy here.You can read more about the award here and see…

Our authors are the best authors

Am I repeating myself? Because they're ace. We've always known it, but it's nice when they get the recognition they deserve, as is happening at the moment -- Hard on the heels of Margaret Merrilees's shortlisting for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing, we now have not one but two longlistings from the Nita B. Kibble Awards as well! The first is Rachel Hennessy, whose novel The Heaven I Swallowed was runner-up for the Australian/Vogel…

ALL OF THE FEELINGS

Guess who has just been shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Fiction? CONGRATULATIONS MARGARET! Not that anyone here at Wakefield HQ is surprised. The First Week is gripping, beautifully written, and stays with you for a long time after you've finished reading. Click here to read an extract.

Book Fair Success!

What a weekend it was! Don Pyatt Hall looked incredible, thanks to Liz, who spent hours sewing bunting (so cool, right?) and finding the perfect decorations. Then, the books themselves, all marked down and arranged neatly due to the enormous efforts of Trevor, our sales rep extraordinaire, and Jonny, warehouse manager and backbone of all WP's operations. But the best part of the whole weekend was the authors! We kicked the weekend off with Rodney…

Author Profiles - Mag Merrilees

Margaret Merrilees was born and bred in Western Australia but now lives in Adelaide. Her idiosyncratic essays, which combine fiction, history and social commentary, have appeared in Meanjin, Island, Wet Ink and Griffith Review. Margaret is also author of the online serial ‘Adelaide Days’. The First Week won the SA Festival Award for an Unpublished Manuscript at Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2012. Her website is at www.margaretmerrilees.com. We asked Mag a few questions about her new book, The First Week. What’s been the best reaction…