Celebrating books and reading, Books on Bywong is a regular event for book lovers hosted by Sally Wilson.

Each month a guest author will take readers behind the scenes of their book, discussing their inspiration, writing process and publishing journey, as well as their top reading recommendations.

There is no obligation to have read the book, simply come along to enjoy the bookish conversation, pick up some new book recommendations and enjoy a relaxed evening at the West Toowong Bowls Club.

Books will be available for purchase thanks to our friends at Avid Reader and the bar will be open!

The guest author in June is Laura Elvery.

Laura Elvery is the author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter, which won the 2021 Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance and the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and she has won the Josephine Ulrick Prize for Literature, the Margaret River Short Story Competition, the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize and the Fair Australia Prize for Fiction. Nightingale is her first novel. She lives in Brisbane.

About Nightingale

Mayfair, 1910. At the age of ninety, Florence Nightingale is frail and no longer of sound mind. After a celebrated career as a nurse, writer and statistician, she now leads a reclusive existence. One summer evening she is astonished to receive a visitor: a young man named Silas Bradley, who claims to have met her during the Crimean War fifty-five years ago. But how can this be? And how does the elusive Jean Frawley connect their two lives?

In this eagerly anticipated novel, Laura Elvery shows why she is one of the most lauded writers of her generation. Nightingale is a luminous tale of faith and love, bravery and care, and the vitality of women’s work.

About Sally Wilson

Sally Wilson has worked in books and magazine publishing for more than 20 years as a writer, editor, book publicist and marketer. She's passionate about storytelling in all forms and has worked with publishers and literary organisations such as the Brisbane Writers Festival, University of Queensland Press, Griffith Review, Magabala Books, Black Inc, Monash University Publishing and the Australian Book Industry Awards.

For more of Sally's book recommendations, sign up to her newsletter The Booklister: https://thebooklister.substack ...