Some of the best expressions of yearning are in literature. Yearning for hope in the face of an uncertain future, yearning for a sense of belonging, or yearning for love and connection. When an author gets it right, the reader is pulled taut into the story, seeking resolution.
Jumaana Abdu’s Stella Prize-shortlisted Translations weaves themes of colonialism, trauma, identity, loyalty and belonging to both people and place. A work of remarkable maturity, the book conveys as much by what is unspoken, or silenced, as what is on the page. In Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy takes us to a UN Seed Bank on a remote island near Antarctica, where a fractured family and an unexpected visitor battle isolation, the legacy of trauma, and grief. A novel of heartstopping twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore reckons with the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us unravels.
These two incredible novelists will be led in conversation by poet and author of Mettle Anne-Marie Te Whiu.
Jumaana Abdu is the author of Translations which was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the MUD Literary Prize, and a NSW Premier's Literary Award. She was named Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist in 2025 and her widely published fiction and essays have won the Dal Stivens Award, the Patricia Hackett Prize and the Phoebe Journal fiction prize. During the day, she is a medical doctor.
Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the New York Times, USA Today and Indie Bestseller Wild Dark Shore; the New York Times Bestseller Once There Were Wolves, winner of the Indie Book Award for Fiction 2022 and the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel 2022; and the international bestseller Migrations, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020.
Anne-Marie Te Whiu is an Australian-born-Māori whose whakapapa belongs to Te Rarawa iwi through her father’s line and English, Irish and Welsh through her mother’s ancestry. She co-edited Solid Air: Australia and New Zealand Spoken Word, and edited Tony Birch’s Whisper Songs, Bebe Oliver’s More Than These Bones and the acclaimed Woven anthology. Her debut poetry collection is Mettle.
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This event is part of the Main Program and included as part of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Saturday Bronze Passes.
Subject to availability, a limited number of single tickets may become available 9 September.
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This venue is wheelchair accessible. Please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements.