Launch party: HEAT 24

Join us to celebrate the launch of HEAT 24. On an autumnal Thursday in Carlton North, we will once more be chatting and reading and listening and drinking in the beautiful surrounds of Crystal Palace and Courtyard. This year marks 30 years of Australia’s international literary magazine. Ivor Indyk founded HEAT in 1996 to stave off mediocrity and champion new and adventurous writing, and 30 years on we are persisting with the mission. Come and hear readings of poetry, stories and essays by Patrick Hunn, Dorothy Johnston, Anna MacDonald, John Morrissey, Nell Pierce, Hollen Singleton and Amelia Winter.

Patrick Hunn is a writer from New Zealand who lives in Melbourne/Naarm. His collection of short stories, Either Way You Lose, will be published by Sick Leave Press in 2026.

Dorothy Johnston is the author of thirteen novels including two mystery quartets. Two of her novels, One for the Master and Ruth, have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award. Dorothy has published many short stories in journals and anthologies, along with essays in Australia’s major newspapers and journals.

Anna MacDonald is a writer and bookseller. Her books are Between the Word and the World (2019) and A Jealous Tide (2020).

John Morrissey is a Melbourne writer of Kalkadoon descent. His fiction has been published in Meanjin, Griffith Review, Overland, Kill Your Darlings and Kismet. His collection of short stories, Firelight, was released in 2023 and won an Aurealis Award and the Steele Rudd Award. His debut novel, Bird Deity, was released in 2026.

Nell Pierce is the author of the novel A Place Near Eden (2022), winner of The Australian/Vogel Award. Her short fiction has been published in The American Scholar. She holds a Master of Fine Art in fiction writing from the New School in New York City. Nell has worked as an associate literary agent and as a legal associate at the Family Court of Australia.

Hollen Singleton is a writer and editor and teaches at the University of Melbourne. Their novel manuscript, Moss House, was shortlisted for the Novel Prize and the Dzanc Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Richell. It will be published in 2027.

Amelia Winter is a writer of fiction and criticism living in Melbourne/Naarm. Her work has been featured in Meanjin, Action Spectacle, Cordite Poetry Review, un Magazine and X-R-A-Y Lit Mag. She is currently working on a novel.

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Date: Thursday 14 May
Time: From 5.30 p.m.
Venue: Crystal Palace & Courtyard
Entry: Free – RSVP on this page