Outspoken Maleny

Tony Birch is the acclaimed author of four novels, including The White Girl and Ghost River, as well as three short story collections and two books of poetry. Most recently his short story collection Dark as Last Night won the New South Wales Premier's Christina Stead Prize for fiction, the Queensland Literary Award Steele Rudd prize and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's literary prize. He...

Melissa is the best-selling author of The Birdman's Wife, which won many awards, including the Qld Premiers/University of Queensland Fiction Award and the Neilsen Bookscan Award. Her new novel is The Naturalist of Amsterdam. At the turn of the 18th century, Amsterdam is at the centre of an intellectual revolution, with artists and scientists racing to record the wonders of the natural world. Of al...

Sunbirds is set in Java during the Second World War - at the time of Japan’s inexorable move southwards - it depicts the intricate web of identities and loyalties created by war and imperialism, the heartbreaking compromises that so often ensue. Mirandi’s previous novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won the 2020 Queensland Fiction Book Award and the inaugural ARA History Novel Prize. It was shortliste...

When David Marr set out to research the life of his great-grandmother the last thing he expected to find was a photograph of her father, dressed in the uniform of the Native Police. As he writes: ‘I was appalled and curious. I have been writing about the politics of race all my career. I know what side I’m on. Yet that afternoon I found, in the lower branches of my family tree, Sub-Inspector Regin...

A quote from Bookseller + Publisher: 'When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Norah. It incorporates other letters and facts from the Orwells’ lives and Funder’s exquisite imagining of Eile...

Angela O’Keeffe’s new novel  The Sitter begins with ‘the author’ in an apartment in Paris, looking out towards the burnt shell of the Notre Dame Cathedral. She is, ostensibly, researching the life of Marie-Hortense Fiquet, but Hortense, dead these hundred years, seems to have, in some way, taken over the process of writing. Hortense was, of course, better known as the wife of Cézanne. He painted 2...

Kim Mahood grew up in the 1950s and 60s on Mongrel Downs, a cattle station on the edge of the Tanami Desert. Much has changed in those parts in recent years: the land has been handed back to the traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; Aboriginal art has flourished. Kim, now a writer and artist, still returns every year. Her new book, Wandering with Intent, is a collection of essays...

Louise speaks about her biography of Butjala artist Fiona Foley, a 'beautifully composed, intimate first-person account of the artistic practice of Badtjala artist, Fiona Foley. Each chapter meanders and unfolds, taking us on a vivid journey to place -K'gari or Fraser Island - combined with encounters and conversations with the artist, her family and affiliates. Carefully configured and tenderly c...

Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as Sandy, is one of the world’s most-loved authors. For many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the UK and abroad before turning his hand to writing fiction. Since then he has written more than 100 books including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children’s books. His...

When you think of compassion, what comes to mind? Kindness, understanding, tenderness, empathy, maybe warmth? Compassion can be all those things – but it is much more. Drawing on his many years of experience as a clinical psychologist and researcher, Dr James Kirby brings together hard science and real-life examples to offer a guide to a more compassionate life and society. Kirby debunks the myth...

Joanna is the author of the fast-paced and witty thriller How to Kill a Client. Gavin Jones is dead. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he wlelded power with manipulative contempt. The partners relied on his favour to fund their lavish lifestyles and, if sycophantic admiration was what it took to secure work from Gavin, well, that's what they delivered. But...

Chris is a Gurang Gurang/Taribelang man and former Queenslander of the Year. His memoir tells the remarkable story of how a young boy from Bundaberg grew up to become Principal of the Cherbourg School, the founder of the Stronger Smarter Insitute and, now, to hold a senior position in the Queensland Government, where he is working to forge a path to Treaty. We’re more than simply delighted to have...

Peter Hudson is a landscape and portrait painter living and working in Maleny. Since the late 1990s he has explored aspects of the natural world, astronomy, mythology, and history to investigate ‘the deep mystery of existence and us being here’. In 1998, he made the first of many trips to the Aboriginal communities of Daguragu and Kalkarinji in Gurindji country in the Northern Territory. The Gurin...

Heather Rose is the award-winning author of Bruny and The Museum of Modern Love. Her new memoir, nothing bad ever happens here is deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity, and healing. Growing up on the remote island of Tasmania, Heather Rose falls in love with nature, but a tragedy that occurs when she is twelve sets her on a course to explore life’s mysteries...

We’re failing this continent. We have been for some time. The latest State of the Environment Report only confirms what we’ve all known for years. In Northern NSW, west of the Divide, it used to be brigalow scrub, growing on what turned out to be the richest soil in the country - not a coincidence as it happens - but it’s almost all gone, and the job of protecting what’s left falls to environmenta...

Katie’s first novel, The Mistake, was exceedingly well-received, with cover notes by such luminaries as Liane Moriarty - I absolutely loved this novel… fresh, funny and heartfelt… I didn’t want it to end. Now she returns with The Accident, revealing the inner lives of Grace, Zoe and Imogen, whose worlds are linked through shared but not always obvious connections. The Accident explores the ways in...

Fiona Robertson is a writer and doctor (yes, two doctors for the price of one!). Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in Australia and the UK, and has been shortlisted for international competitions. Her collection of stories, If You’re Happy, won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards. Fiona lives in Brisb...

Outspoken is delighted to bring Dr Norman Swan to Maleny for a conversation about his new book, So You Want to Live Younger Longer? Trained in paediatrics, Dr Swan was one of the first medically qualified journalists in Australia, and has had a broadcast career spanning more than 30 years. He currently hosts Radio National's The Health Report while also reporting on 7.30 and several other ABC prog...

Kári Gíslason was born in Iceland. He’s the author of four books, two non-fiction and two novels. The Promise of Iceland tells the story of return journeys he’s made to his birthplace, while Saga Land: The island of stories at the edge of the world, co-written with Richard Fidler, is an account of visits they made together to the places where the Icelandic sagas actually took place. It won the Ind...

The Honourable Kevin Rudd AC. Mr Rudd was first elected as Prime Minister in 2007. Early initiatives of his government were the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, A Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations, and the 2020 Summit. During the term of his government Labor also managed to keep Australia out of recession, despite the Global Financial Crisis, as well as commencing the roll-out of the N...

Chinese history is long, sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, extraordinary cultural and scientific leaps and deep dark times. Linda Jaivin distils this vast history into a concise narrative that allows us a glimpse of its importance to the formation of China as we see it today. Right now in Australia, we desperately ne...

Warren is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Queensland. His writing has appeared in many publications and he is a winner of the New Philosopher’s Award. His book, Lovers of Philosophy explores the intimate lives of seven philosphers, investigating the way their most personal experiences came to shape their ideas. Warren has a wonderful way of weaving the personal with the publ...

Kevin grew up on the western edge of the Snowy Mountains, in a small sawmill village. He has worked primarily in drama and theatre, as actor, writer and teacher. His poetry has been published in Australia and overseas but Awake to the Rest of My Days is his first anthology. His poems have been runners-up, finalists, short-listed, gained special mentions, commendations and honourable mentions in ma...

The tag line on the cover of Scott’s remarkable new book, Full Circle, says simply: ‘Australia lost a Senator, the world gained a luminous writer’ and that just about sums it up. Ludlam proves to be more than just erudite, he’s prepared to enlist descriptions of the very foundations of life into his argument for a better understanding of our place in the world, and the responsibilities that come w...

David Williamson is the most produced playwright in the history of Australian theatre. Now, after 50 years of mainstage productions and numerous film scripts – a remarkable body of work – David has written his long-awaited memoir, Home Truths. In the book he reveals how a childhood defined by marital discord sparked a lifelong fascination with the capacity for drama to explore emotional conflict;...