Brunswick Bound Books

Jay Carmichael is a writer and editor.  His first novel, Ironbark , was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016.   His writing has been published by beyondblue and appeared widely in print and online, including in Overland, The Guardian, SBS and The Telling Tree project. Jay will be reading from Ironbark at First Chapters on Friday 5 October. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work. Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? The section I’ll be reading from my debut novel, Ironbark , appears later on in the text when there’s a change from third-person to first-person point of view: this is the novel’s protagonist, Markus, addressing his best friend, Grayson. You can expect to hear a few things packed into a short space – e.g. climate change, sexuality, and homophobia. These themes do share a common similarity between the...

Enza Gandolfo is a Melbourne-based writer and an honorary professor in Creative Writing at Victoria University.  She is also the co-editor of the journal TEXT and a founding member of the Victoria University Feminist Research Network.   Enza's first novel, Swimming (2009), was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award. She will be reading from her new novel The Bridge at First Chapters on Friday 5 October . 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? I am going to read the Prologue of The Bridge . This introduces the reader to Antonello, one of the two main protagonists, and to the West Gate bridge. We get a sense of the relationship between Antonello and the bridge, as well as between Antonello and his wife, Paolina. The prologue is set in October 1970, a couple of days before the bridge collapses and Antonello’s life is changed forever.   ...

Kate O'Donnell is a writer, editor and bookseller specialising in children's and young adult literature.  She has a BA in History and French from the University of Melbourne and studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. Kate will be reading from her YA novel Untidy Towns at First Chapters on Friday 5 October. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work. Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? An eighteenth birthday party on a farm, implied inebriation and perhaps one count of accidental electrocution. 2. How would you describe the kind of books that you write? Quiet Australian young adult fiction about girls who have something to say (even if they’re not sure what it is just yet) and written with an excess of strange detail, as well as comedy so subtle you might miss it. 3. What was the first book that you read (or had read to you) that left an impression on you? We had a litt...

Eleni Hale was previously a reporter at the Herald Sun , a communications strategist for the union movement and has written for many print and online news publications.  Her short story Fig was published as part of the ABC's In Their Branches  project and she has received three Varuna awards.  Eleni will be reading from her YA novel Stone Girl at First Chapters on Friday 6 October. We asked Eleni some bookish questions to get to know her better and this is what she had to say. 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? Chapter one. The narrator in Stone Girl , Sophie Soukaris, is 12-years-old. She is at the police station and in shock. Her mum is dead and Sophie thinks it’s her fault. Since there is no one else to care for her, a social worker comes to take her to a group home where kids without a family live. This is the beginning of a very new life for...

We had our September  Junior Book Club meeting at the Brunswick Library last week and we discussed A.F. Harrold's stunning novel The Song From Somewhere Else . One of our book club members wrote a great review of the book.  Here is what Chloe had to say about The Song From Somewhere Else . I loved this book.  I liked how the book already started with a problem (Neil Noble bullying Frank).  I also enjoyed how every problem linked onto another problem.  For example, if Neil Noble wasn't bullying Frank then Nick wouldn't have to have saved her bag from the nettles which then led Nick and Frank to becoming friends.  If Nick hadn't saved Frank's bag from the nettles, then Nick wouldn't have got to hug his Mum, and so on. I loved the name of this book because you wouldn't be able to understand much if you just looked at the title, you have to read the book to understand what's going on. Levi Pinfold's illustrations are AMAZING.  I lik...

John Tesarsch is a writer and barrister.  He used to be a professional cellist based in Vienna, but had to give up music due to a debilitating allergy to the rosin used on cello bows. He returned to Melbourne to study Law and was then diagnosed with tongue cancer and spent a year undergoing extensive treatments.   He is the author of the acclaimed novels The Philanthropist and The Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman and will be reading from Dinner With the Dissidents at First Chapters on Friday 7 September . 1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen? Dinner with the Dissidents is the story of Leonid Krasnov, an aspiring young writer who is persuaded by the KGB to spy on the great novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn, with the promise that if he agrees, Leonid will become a literary star. In the first chapter, which I will read, Leonid meets a mysterious p...