The Next Big Thing
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Angela Meyer’s haunting debut, A Superior Spectre, follows the treacherous experiments and desires of a dying man as he becomes entangled in a surreal plot that melds historical and speculative fiction. In the post-megastorm world of Vincent Silk’s first novel, Sisters of No Mercy, a group of rebels upset the establishment in their quest for survival. And in Margaret Morgan’s The Second Cure, an inexplicable outbreak bends society in bizarre ways – revealing dilemmas at the core of what makes us who we are, and how we make sense of our predicaments.
These three new Australian novels each chart a rupture – personal, political, psychical – and an unexpected encounter with danger. Join their three authors, plus Grace Hart, reading her piece 'mad' from Voiceworks #111, for readings that plumb the unease of our era.
Readings will be our bookseller at this event.
Who?
Stella Charls
Stella is the Wheeler Centre's Programming Coordinator.
An emerging arts manager and event producer, Stella was previously the Marketing and Events Coordinator for Readings, and the Festival Manager for the National Young Writers’ Festival, Australia’s largest gathering of young and innovative writers working in both new and traditional forms.
Angela Meyer
Angela Meyer is an award-winning Australian writer and editor. Her debut novel, A Superior Spectre, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the MUD Literary Prize, an Australian Book Industry Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Writing and a Saltire Literary Society Award (Scotland). She is also the author of a novella, Joan Smokes, which won the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award (UK), and a book of flash fiction, Captives.
Vincent Silk
Vincent Silk is a Melbourne-based writer working in fiction and non-fiction. His work has been published in the UTS Writers’ Anthology, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Archer and Seizure, among other places. In his non-fiction, he blends poetics and facts, and in his fiction he explores possibilities. Sisters of No Mercy is his first novel.
Margaret Morgan
After practising in criminal law, Margaret Morgan became a professional writer, screenwriter and script editor in television for many well-regarded Australian drama series (including Water Rats, A Country Practice and GP). Margaret’s short fiction has been published in Meanjin and Going Down Swinging, and her works for stage (librettos for music theatre) have been performed at major Australian arts festivals.
Grace Hart
Grace is completing her honours thesis in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. She enjoys writing creative non-fiction and has been published in Voiceworks.
The Next Big Thing
The Next Big Thing takes place every month at the Moat and is a cherished Melbourne institution. It's the place to be if you want to hear great emerging writers read from new and adventurous work.
Enjoy a delicious drink and a bite to eat, while sampling writing from tomorrow's best and brightest literary stars.
