Fremantle Press and The Literature Centre invite you to celebrate the release of two new titles shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award – Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp and A Wreck of Seabirds by Karleah Olson. Hosted at The Literature Centre, the books will be launched by the founder of the Fogarty Foundation, Annie Fogarty, and followed by an in-conversation hosted by 2021 Fogarty Literary Award winner, Brooke Dunnell.

The event is free to attend, but bookings are essential.

Copies of both books will be available for purchase on the night courtesy of our friends at Crow Books.

We hope to see you there!

ABOUT JASPER CLIFF

This gothic thriller is set in the tiny outpost of Jasper Cliff in the remote heart of north-west Australia, a place where people have a habit of vanishing. As Lachlan drives north to look for his missing brother Toby, he too is drawn into the foreboding, timeless landscape of the East Pilbara – to a place called The Rift, where the truth of Toby’s disappearance may be revealed. This gothic thriller reveals the scars of a colonial legacy in a landscape where survival is a formidable challenge, and the line between life and death becomes desperately thin.

ABOUT JOSH KEMP

Josh Kemp is an author of Australian gothic and crime fiction. He lives in the south-west of Western Australia but finds himself drawn, over and over again, to the red dirt of the state’s north. His debut novel, Banjawarn, won the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award, the 2022 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction and the Western Australian Premier’s Prize for Best Emerging Writer.

ABOUT A WRECK OF SEABIRDS

This confronting and compelling read delves into themes of loss, isolation and entrapment, and is set against the brooding backdrop of the Australian coast. The narrative moves back and forth in time, following the interwoven storylines of three protagonists – Briony, Ren and Sarah.
Grappling with grief and loss, Briony and Ren are brought together in their hometown, where Ren has returned to care for his dying father and Briony remains hopeful of finding her missing sister, Sarah. Meanwhile, Sarah and her best friend Aria are trapped on a remote island off the coast, and nobody has a clue where they have gone.

ABOUT KARLEAH OLSON

Karleah Olson is a Perth-based writer and an avid reader. She has spent the last few years as a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University studying Australian Coastal Gothic Literature. Her debut novel A Wreck of Seabirds was shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award.