Thank you Albury, Ettalong, Sydney, Canberra, Margaret River, Busselton, Hobart, Launceston and more …

Thank you to all who participated in, created, taught, volunteered, interviewed and conversed at Newcastle Writer’s Festival, Margaret River Writer’s Festival, Sydney Writer’s Festival, The Island Readers and Writers Festival, Canberra Writers Festival, Words on the Waves and more…

It was such a delight to be part of festivals  and events across Australia this year discussing writing and creativity, A Great Act of Love and Nothing Bad Ever Happens Ever Happens Here – but also teaching keen writers at several festival workshops.

The feature pic was taken during Margaret River Writers Festival at the Busselton wharf venue in conversation with the wonderful Sarah McNeill.

Thank you again all the readers who came along and all the fellow writers and interviewers who make this Australian writing community such a joy.

It’s a wrap for events this year … now to write the next novel.

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

Heather Rose Wins Prestigious Alice Award for Lifetime Contribution to Australian Literature

Launceston, Tasmania — 21 September 2026 —

Heather Rose has been named the recipient of the 2026 Alice Award, presented on Saturday in Launceston by the Australian Society of Women Writers.

The Alice Award is one of Australian literature’s most prestigious honours, presented biennially to a woman writer judged by her peers to have made a distinguished, long-term contribution to Australian literature. Past recipients include some of the nation’s most acclaimed literary figures, among them Alice Pung OAM (2024), Jackie French (2022), Dr Clare Wright (2016), Kate Grenville (2002), Elizabeth Jolley (1992) and Eleanor Dark (1978).

Tasmanian Heather Rose is one of Australia’s most celebrated and bestselling authors. Her 2017 novel The Museum of Modern Love — inspired by artist Marina Abramović’s performance piece The Artist Is Present — won the Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize and the Margaret Scott Prize, and has since been adapted for the stage and is in development as a feature film. Her 2019 political thriller Bruny won Best General Fiction at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and her 2022 memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here was widely praised for its unflinching honesty. Her latest novel, A Great Act of Love, was published in 2025 and longlisted for the 2026 ARA Historical Fiction Prize.

Announcing the Alice Award for 2026, Tasmanian President of the Society of Women Writers, Mary Farr, on behalf of Australian Society of Women Writers’, said “that the biennial literary award honours an Australian woman who has made a distinguished, long-term contribution to Australian literature.”

“To receive the Alice Award for a lifetime of literary achievement feels both humbling and clearly indicates I’m getting older!” Rose said in receiving the prize which was awarded to her by Dr Bob Brown. “This award carries the names of writers I have admired and been inspired by my whole writing life. Tasmania has shaped everything I write, so to be recognised here, at this year’s even held in Launceston, and surrounded by this community of friends and fellow writers, is enormously meaningful to me. It’s the camaraderie and collegiality we share as writers that makes this life especially rich.”

The Alice Award trophy was presented at a ceremony attended by members of the Society of Women Writers from across the country, with nominees from South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland Victoria and Tasmania. The only other Tasmanian to win the award has been Dr Margaret Scott in 2004.

Heather Rose becomes the latest in a distinguished line of recipients stretching back to the award’s inception, joining a roll call that includes Ruth Park,  Mem Fox, Dame Mary Durack and Judith Wright among its most celebrated names.

For more information or interview requests, please contact Samantha Ryan samr@allenandunwin.com

 

 

This weekend I’ll be at Newcastle Writers Festival!

Saturday March 28th 10am I’ll be talking about The Writing Life with my two wonderful fellow writers – Hannah Kent (Always Home, Always Homesick, Burial Rights etc) and J.P.Pomare (The Gambler, Seventeen Years Later etc)  guided by the one and only Kate Evans from ABC Arts. Tickets here.

3pm Saturday March 28th I’ll be interviewing the extraordinary Stephanie Alexander AO celebrating the launch of the 30 anniversary edition of legendary Australian  kitchen bible The Cook’s Companion. I’ve interviewed Julia Gillard, Elizabeth Gilbert and many other writers, but this one feels very special. Tickets here.

Sunday 5pm March 29th I’ll be in conversation with the wonderful Jacinta Parson talking about A Great Act of Love. Tickets here. 

Please come along. there are so many brilliant writers across the entire Newcastle Writers program. Link here to all ticketed events.

 

T

Events and conversations at Newcastle Writers Festival 2026

Caroline examines a stolen map. And there she finds it, at the edge of the Western Hemisphere, a black mark at the 30th latitude smaller than a flea: Norfolk Island. Her Aunt thinks she’s a fool for wanting to follow her father to the other side of the world. He is no longer the man who taught Caroline about philosophy, apothecary and dreamt of returning to the France of his childhood. He is a convicted murderer, mad, deported, condemned. But, when she understands that Caroline is determined, her Aunt has one piece of advice: she must leave her past behind and invent a new story.

In 1839, Caroline lands in Van Dieman’s Land, a young widow of means with a boy in her care. In this insular colony of exiles and opportunists, no-one talks too much about their past. Caroline leases a run-down cottage and abandoned vineyard and, on this island of extreme seasons and wild beauty, she embarks on a fearless enterprise to reclaim her father, create champagne, and rewrite her family’s legacy.

Travelling from Paris to Edinburgh, London, New York and to Tasmania, The Great Act of Love is an epic story of hope and self-invention. Now published by John Murray publishers with the wonderful team lead by Jocasta Hamilton.

‘A captivating story of love and adventure, thrumming with secrets’ Lucy Steeds, author of The Artist

‘Moves elegantly back and forwards in time, and across the world from Paris and London to
the Antipodes . . . Beautifully written’ Sunday Times

‘A compelling tale . . . blends historical fiction with high adventure and romance’ Guardian

‘Like a fine vintage of champagne, this novel is complex, layered, and delicious’ Kate MacIntosh, author of The Champagne Letters

A young woman with a mysterious past searches for her father—who has committed an unspeakable crime—in an exquisitely lush historical novel set among the champagne vines of 19th-century Australia.

Van Diemen’s Land, 1839. A young woman of means arrives in Hobart, Australia, with a boy in her care. Leasing an old cottage next to an abandoned vineyard, Caroline Douglas must navigate an insular colony of exiles and opportunists and invent a new life on this island of extreme seasons and wild beauty. But Caroline is carrying a secret of such magnitude that it has led her to cross the world. It will take all she is made of to bring it into the light.

A Great Act of Love is a spellbinding story that soars from the French Revolution to London and New York on an epic voyage to Tasmania. Here is a story of a family with champagne in their blood, and an enterprising woman determined to rewrite their legacy. The lives of Caroline, her father, and the residents of the island will collide in devastating and profound ways.

Now published by Summit/ Simon & Schuster lead by Judy Clain and the wonderful team at Summit New York.

Immensely beautiful with unforgettable characters, this heartrending family saga chronicles a father and daughter’s journey back to each other and captures the enduring power of familial love.

‘Sumptuous…This is a treat for historical fiction fans.’ Publishers Weekly

Thank you to all the wonderful interviewers who shared the launch of A Great Act of Love with me through October. We began with Mel Kembrey in Hobart for the offical Tasmanian launch, then moved to  Kate Evans in Sydney and Brisbane, Michaela Kalowski in Sydney,  Jason Steger at Queenscliff, Sarah MacDonald at Avalon, Caro Baum at Thirroul, Helen Waugh in Sydney, Tracee Hutchison at Montalto on the Mornington Peninsula, Toni Jordan in Melbourne, Shelley Davidow in Noosa, Karen Viggers in Canberra, Stephen Lang in Maleny and Hannah Kent in the Adelaide Hills and Cassie McCullough and Kate Evans in Canberra.

Thank you to all the beautiful booksellers, hosts and staff at inner city venues, delightful wineries, beautiful restaurants and awesome libraries from the Adelaide Hills, to Maleny and Noosa, to events at Sorrento, Queenscliffe and Canberra Writers Festivals.

Thank you to all the readers and fellow writers who shared their love along the way.

And to Allen & Unwin, publishers extraordinaire, for all the planning, logistics and care.

Murder, theft, reinvention and redemption – a novel of family, legacy and love.

Listen to Heather talk about ‘A Great Act of Love’ on Radio National with Claire Nichols.

Read Helen Elliott’s review in The Age.

Photograph by Sarah Enticknap.

Just when you thought you’d escaped a possible future, it’s back – in this beautiful new design.

Family, intrigue, politics, globalism and the rare beauty of a remote home …

Described as ‘more a hand grenade than a book’ by Rohan Wilson in The Australian – here is Tasmania on the world stage … while Tasmanians do their best to do what they are good at. Remaining loyal to the islands we love. First published in 2019.

Winner of the 2020 <strong>Fiction Book of The Year</strong> in the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Shortlisted for the <strong>Independent Booksellers Book of the Year</strong>
One of Australia’s <strong>Top 10 Bestselling Novels</strong> of 2020

Nominated for one of the best books of the 21st century – https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books

Newly released and in bookstores now! My first novel White Heart … published in 1999 and out of print for many years – but now in this beautiful edition.

A novel of the magic of childhood and the poignant transition to adulthood for Farley Willow and her brother Ambrose. While Ambrose searches for evidence of an ancient creature, Farley journeys into native American ritual. A novel about the fragile landscape of the human heart with the ever-present beauty of Tasmania from sea-shore to the south-west wilderness.

Thank you to all the team @allenandunwin and @thenaheragency for the opportunity to see this book back in print … and with the beautiful design by @sandyc_gogo and exquisite art by @cyan_o_type

The River Wife is now published in this beautifully designed new edition. The River Wife is the story of a woman who is a fish by night and a woman by day, but when love comes to the river, everything changes. This is the second of my backlist to be published afresh by Allen & Unwin and featuring the cyan0type brilliance of British artist Will Creech. (White Heart – my first novel – will re published again in June.)

The River Wife was originally published in 2009 – my third novel. The Age said about it – ‘A celebration of the beauty of nature and the enduring power of story.’ Readings said ‘The River Wife holds stories within stories and they are all woven together with a compassionate and unique hand.’ The Canberra Times said ‘A cool and luscious fable of love …elegiac and profound.’ It’s that rare thing in Australian literature – magical realism.

It won the International Varuna Eleanor Dark Fellowship as an unfinished manuscript which took me on a wonderful writing adventure to Scotland for a month back in 2007 as part of the UNESCO Edinburgh City of Literature program. The River Wife has accumulated a particularly passionate group of readers over the years – and it’s always very special to meet them.

If you haven’t yet read this one, I invite you to immerse yourself in a story of love, water and belonging.

 

Twenty years after being published by UQP, and continuously in print, Allen & Unwin has acquired the award-winning The Butterfly Man. A crime fiction novel like no other.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here is currently shortlisted for the Premier’s Prize for Non-fiction in the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards. It is always very special to be recognised for your work in your home territory. Tasmania has been the wellspring of all my writing. The prizes are biennial – so this is a late and lovely surprise for the memoir!  And it’s a great honour to be listed alongside esteemed historian Lucy Frost, beloved author Maggie MacKellar and editor and academic Matthew Lamb. Read extracts of each work on the links in the judges’ comments below. Thank you to all the judges. My fellow shortlisted authors are:

• Convict Orphans by Lucy Frost (Allen & Unwin, 2023)
• Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths by Matthew Lamb (Penguin Random House, 2023)
• Graft by Maggie MacKellar (Penguin Random House, 2023)

Judges’ comments

We have been thrilled by the quality, diversity and interest of the books nominated for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards. After selecting a fascinating longlist, we were faced with some difficult decisions in narrowing this down to only four books. In the end, we were in close agreement: those we have chosen resonated most strongly with the committee for many different reasons, but we would like to congratulate all the authors whose magnificent works we have carefully considered and so greatly enjoyed.

Convict Orphans by Lucy Frost

Lucy Frost’s Convict Orphans gives a fascinating insight into an underexplored dimension of colonial Australian history: the many children who found themselves displaced and disenfranchised by the convict system and the extraordinary challenges they faced. Beautifully and sensitively written, the book is a testament to Frost’s expertise and rigour as a historian, illuminating stories of deprivation and brutality, but also of resilience, hope, kindness and survival.

Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths by Matthew Lamb

We have relished reading Matthew Lamb’s Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths. Not only does this first book in a planned two-volume biography take on one of Australia’s most vivid literary figures with impressive detail and insight – it works as a social and cultural history of the author’s context, complete with the challenges he posed to the sexual mores and conventions of his times. Crucial to this is its broader exploration of Australia’s literary development, which makes this book (even!) bigger than the sum of its parts.

Graft by Maggie MacKellar

Maggie Mackellar’s Graft is a beautifully written memoir that takes us through a year of drought on a merino wool farm and the events and challenges that had led her there. Her intimate love for and knowledge of this piece of land on lutruwita/Tasmania’s East Coast and the fragile and resilient life it sustains is evocatively, poetically and generously shared with the reader. With elements of the best of nature writing, memoir and as a meditation on parenthood, this is a stunning book.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here by Heather Rose

What a life! In Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here, Heather Rose shares her unconventional life in a lightly compelling prose style that captures the book’s complex themes with deceptive simplicity. From devastating tragedy and grief to extreme pursuits of spirituality, self-discovery and so much in between, Rose conveys her remarkable experiences in a way that allows them to be felt and understood. The undercurrent of loss and sadness runs seamlessly in parallel with joy, humour and love.