Anne Machen, author of No Rest for the Wicked, is podcasting speculative fiction reviews fortnightly, especially short stories, serials, novellas and novel by indie authors and boutique publishers. You can listen to reviews of Balanced in an Eye and Bastard’s Grace(which, by the way, is on special for only $1.95 in our digital store).

Writers and would-be writers often complain about writer's block or not being able to think of ideas, but a new book from Smink Works Books has the answer.

A Year of Writing Inspiration: A prompt a day for the creative writer provides 365 writing exercises so the writer can be creative and get inspiration on a daily basis. The idea is that the writer takes a journal and a pen and writes for 15-20 minutes based on the writing prompts in the book.

The book's author, Suzanne Male, is Smink Works Books publisher and co-founder of the Writers' Resource Centre. She has been a journalist, writer and editor for 20 years. She says the book has been designed to encourage inspiration and provoke creativity. "It's a quintessential truth that the more you write, the more inspiration you get," she says. "It means we are focusing on writing and ideas every day, and if that is where our focus lies, then we'll be cultivating creativity."

The book contains diverse writing exercises ranging from photographs to prompt stories, to five distinct words to include in an opening paragraph, to an invite to imagine you have pognophobia.

Join Franne Buost as she introduces her latest novel, Muldrie'sCurse: Natalie King, Forensic Psychiatrist, for an exciting Auther Encounter at the Warun Ponds Library.

Franne Buost is the Chair of Women's Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry. Muldrie's Curse is an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller that is sure to keep you guessing.

Shane Latt West, author of Bus Stop on a Loop and Balanced in an Eye, will be appearing at this year’s Supanova Expo at the RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane.

The Department of English at the University of Sydney is pleased to be hosting the David Harold Tribe Fiction Award for short works of literature, which is now open for submissions. The Award is designed to encourage fiction writing, and promote interest in Australian fiction generally, and is open to writers nationwide. Prize money of $12,000 will be awarded to a fictional piece, making it one of the most generous short story prizes in Australia.

Scribe have just acquired world rights in two crime thrillers by Melbourne author J.M. Green: Good Money, which was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript; and Too Easy, its sequel. Both books are narrated by Stella Hardy, a wise-cracking social worker with a bad diet and a thirst for social justice, good coffee, and alcohol.Good Money is mainly set in Melbourne’s western suburbs, and its intricate plot features drug-dealing, murder, Russian gangsters, and mining scams.

More than 150 entries were received for the 2018 Stella Prize, and are currently being read and debated by our esteemed and committed judges. The $50,000 prize will be presented for the best work of literature, fiction or non-fiction, published in 2014 by an Australian woman. We look forward to announcing the 2015 Stella Prize longlist in February, the shortlist in March, and the winner in April 2019.

Q: What’s as Australian as Vegemite and as American as apple pie? A: The new issue of McSweeney’s, the US literary journal so hip it should be wearing black-framed glasses and riding a bicycle. McSweeney’s 41 features four stories from Australian indigenous writers. Contributors Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Ellen van Neerven-Currie will join McSweeney’s managing editor Jordan Bass and curator Chris Flynn to celebrate the launch.