Shirley Marr’s new middle-grade fiction is a bittersweet but hopeful story about a young girl immigrating to Australia. The story is written entirely in second person, an unexpected but welcome stylistic choice, putting the reader directly in Meixing Lim’s shoes to feel her anxiety, anger, frustration, and disappointment in a heart-wrenchingly close-to-home way.

Emily Sun storms onto the poetry scene with this bold and intelligent debut filled with rage and wit. Inspired by Asian-American feminist writers, Sun resists Orientalism and explores what it means to belong across geo-political and social boundaries. From its bright cover to every emotion evoked by this collection, Vociferate demands your attention and won’t let you go once it’s got you.

Why, with all evidence pointing in the same direction, do climate denialists still exist? Why, when renewable alternatives exist, are we still building coal and gas plants? Why, when scientists have been begging for action since the seventies, have we been so slow to engage in meaningful change? Joshi sets out to answer these questions in Windfall, looking at the social, political, and economic factors that have led to our current climate crisis and, more importantly, how we can ensure a stable climate for future generations.

Almost every page seems to be loaded with double meanings, the words themselves broad enough to encompass the nuance and variety of experiences. Meanwhile the images add another layer of complexity, honing in on the big issues and drawing the reader in to a broader story of confusion, wonder, nervousness, and overall disconcertment.

I have a little bit of a soft spot for cursed kids; there’s something about them that just makes my heart sing. So of course, this book started on great legs when it began with Mei Ling Pang who was ‘born at an inauspicious time on an inauspicious day in an inauspicious month’ after a black cat jumped over her mother’s belly while pregnant with her. Mei is, according to her extended relatives, a magnet for misfortune and she’s struggles to challenge this label when her family’s restaurant is empty (despite having the world’s best Kung Pow Chicken), her parents are both in need of medical attention (they can’t afford), and now the evil Dr Heckyll from the Mega Morgue next door seems to have brewed up a concoction that could spell the end of their little town.

Australia has its fair share of hard-hitting sci-fi authors. Have you read all eight authors on this list? Who else would you add?

‘Faith has preconditions in need and hopefulness. It doesn’t re-quire actual hope, just willingness for it, and the need for change. We all of us had need.’

Written with a distinct Australian Gothic bent, The Salt Madonna also embodies elements of literary fiction with its lyrical prose and careful consideration. Just as the story itself is multilayered, so are the themes that Noske explores within them. Faith, family, masculinity and colonialism are just some of the ideas explored in this tale of an isolated community caught up in collective mania.

A fast-paced, gripping read that keeps you turning the pages with expectation. With each revelation, new questions appear and as the story unfolds it still holds surprises right until its conclusion. Jones certainly doesn’t take the predictable route in coming to the resolution.

Awards like the Miles Franklin Award, The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, The Premiers’ Book Awards, and the Stella Awards all showcase incredible literary talent, but these awards often have a strong focus on literary fiction. So if you’re looking for ways to find what the best new books are in your own favourite genre, I proudly present six book awards to follow if you’re not a literary fiction reader.