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A Different Way by Kerryn Phelps

Marriage equality and medical activist Dr Kerryn Phelps wrote this beautiful tribute to same-sex partnerships, the joys of raising a family and the real challenges couples experience when they’re not recognised equally in the eyes of the law. We encourage you to read this and vote yes.

I was raised in a ‘traditional’ Australian family on Sydney’s northern beaches, with a mother and a father and a younger brother. My parents grew up during the Great Depression and they believed that education, working hard and saving were the fundamental elements of success.

My parents liked to go boating and fishing, so I […]

Em 2017-09-08T11:20:31+00:00 September 7th, 2017|

Love Ya Bookshop Day!

563,000.

That’s a big number!

563,000 what, you say?

Well, books. 563,000 different ones, in fact. Big books, skinny books, hardbacks, paperbacks. Crime fiction, romance, cats doing funny things, how to grow vegetables on your balcony.

In 2016 there were 563,000 different titles that sold at least one copy in Australia.

If you were in a giant warehouse with 563,000 titles, how on earth would you choose one?

You wouldn’t – because your local bookshop has done this for you. Seriously. They’ve weeded through these 563,000 and carefully selected for you their best 10,000, or 20,000, or however many they hold. What’s more, if […]

Em 2017-08-11T15:59:45+00:00 August 11th, 2017|

The 2017 Affirm Press Mentorship Award Winners Announced

Two novels and a memoir have been selected as the winning manuscripts of the 2017 Affirm Press Mentorship Award.

The authors of the winning manuscripts will receive a week’s residency and manuscript development at Varuna, the National Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains. Two members of the Affirm Press editorial team, senior editor Ruby Ashby-Orr and editor Cosima McGrath, will provide in-depth manuscript development and feedback as part of the award.

Three very different stories, all with female protagonists, make up this year’s winners.

Inheritance by Kathryn O’Connor
Eileen and Anita have never met, yet they are connected in the most intimate of […]

Em 2017-09-05T13:37:35+00:00 August 8th, 2017|

Writing Through Pain: Sue Currie’s Journey From Difficult Patient to Published Author

Imagine having a life-threatening illness only for doctors to think you’re faking it. For fifteen long years this was Sue Currie’s reality.

Determined to share her story, Sue enrolled in a writing course and learned how to turn her experience of medical negligence into a powerful memoir. Now, after years of hard work, her book Difficult Patient has been released. We asked Sue about the writing process and the challenge of compressing decades of pain into a book that others could read and benefit from.

In the late 90s when I contacted journalists to tell my story, they didn’t […]

Em 2017-08-11T16:08:38+00:00 July 7th, 2017|

The Birdman’s Wife Wins Australian Book Association’s Booksellers’ Choice Award.

Affirm Press’ bestselling 2016 novel The Birdman’s Wife by Melissa Ashley has won the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) Booksellers’ Choice Award.

Em 2017-07-07T10:21:12+00:00 June 22nd, 2017|

Martin On the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award Winner, Christian White

I read Melbourne author Christian White’s DECAY THEORY in a day, a night and a morning. I was absolutely enthralled; my family didn’t get a look-in. Christian writes with a kind of magic, and I was under his spell from the very first page.

Em 2017-08-11T10:50:42+00:00 June 15th, 2017|

Meet Our Younger Readers Senior Editor, Davina Bell.

It sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t realise until pretty late in life that books were made by people or that you could work as part of that world. But one of my earliest memories is reading The Pokey Little Puppy on my mum’s lap, squished into her brown 70s rocking chair, which we used to do a lot.

Em 2017-05-18T09:54:45+00:00 May 12th, 2017|

Top tips for becoming a wicked stepmum

If one in five Australian families are blended, then there must have been plenty of people like Kelly Chandler who fell in love and then ended up with an instant family.

Em 2017-05-12T14:59:06+00:00 May 8th, 2017|

The Birdman’s Wife shortlisted for the General Fiction Book of the Year – Australian Book Industry Awards

We’re incredibly proud that Melissa Ashley’s The Birdman’s Wife has made the Australian Book Industry Award’s shortlist for General Fiction Book of the Year.

We did something a bit bold this year when we did our award entries for the ABIAs and decided not to enter the ‘Small Publisher’ award categories. We have always maintained that book-by-book we can compete with anyone, and it’s a mindset we encourage all our stakeholders to adapt. We also think that considering ourselves as a small publisher is a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereas we want to be a big publisher but still retain the […]

Em 2017-05-01T14:41:45+00:00 May 1st, 2017|

Martin on the joy of kids books

It’s especially satisfying because one of my girls was a reluctant and not-very-confident reader this time last year. Last night, and here’s the reason for my indulgent post, we had ‘a moment’.

Em 2017-04-28T14:39:45+00:00 April 28th, 2017|

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