Author Talk: Dirt Trap by Michael Burge

We're very pleased to welcome Michael Burge to The Book Cow to celebrate the launch of Dirt Trap, the much-anticipated sequel to his rural noir debut Tank Water. Mike will be joined in conversation on the evening by author and journalist Gabrielle Chan.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dirt Trap (newly released in November) is the gripping sequel to Michael's rural noir debut, Tank Water.

Set two decades after the events of his first novel, Dirt Trap dives into the lingering prejudice of small-town Australia, where journalist James Brandt returns to a community still haunted by unresolved gay-hate crimes. With a fearless new story told through the voices of Brandt, Sergeant Therese Lin, and podcaster Rita Dillon, this standalone crime thriller tackles justice, grief, and institutional failure head-on.

Described as “crime fiction at its most vital,” Dirt Trap has already received critical acclaim for its unflinching exploration of queer history and its emotional depth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Burge is an author and journalist who lives at Deepwater in the New England region of NSW. His debut rural noir novel Tank Water and its sequel Dirt Trap are a storytelling cycle about homophobia and its devastating impact in a rural town from the 1970s until the present, and are released by MidnightSun Publishing. Michael reported on the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry Into LGBTIQ+ Hate Crimes for Guardian Australia from 2021 to 2024, and his searing essay ‘Backwards to Bourke: Bulldust About Gays in the Bush’ was published internationally in the Journal of Australian Studies in 2022. An earlier memoir Questionable Deeds: Making a stand for equal love lifted the lid on institutional and familial homophobia during Australia’s hard-fought marriage equality campaign.  

Gabrielle Chan has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She began covering politics in the 1990s for The Australian at the NSW parliament and in the Canberra press gallery, and from 2013 covered politics and rural/regional news for Guardian Australia. The city-born daughter of a Singaporean migrant, Gabrielle moved to a sheep and wheat farm in 1996 where she noticed the yawning gap between parliament and small town life. The result was Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the 2020 Walkley book prize. Her next book was Why You Should Give a F**k About Farming, examining the past, present and future of farming with her characteristically forensic eye. Both titles are published by Penguin.