AustLit

'It was meant to be a story of a boy, a girl and a city – but time, grief and a relentless heart leave a mark that’s hard to wash off. '  (Introduction)

'Slowly returning to a life of her own after years of children and unquiet suburbia, Ramona contemplates still life painting and the authenticity of art, experience and self.'  (Introduction)

'For a child of diaspora, home is not a simple concept. How do you find your place as both a refugee and a settler on stolen land? And can you ever truly feel you belong anywhere?' (Introduction)

'In the weak warmth of an early spring sun, comedian and theatre-maker Zoë Coombs Marr sits opposite me outside the Malthouse Theatre. It’s lunchtime on a busy weekday, and the courtyard is packed with creatives and techies from the Malthouse, Chunky Move and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, all of us soaking up what we can of the Melbourne sun before it disappears. '  (Introduction)

'Amid the hand-wringing over who does and doesn’t deserve a platform at the Melbourne Writers Festival, the perennially overlooked teen and genre communities are seemingly being forgotten once again – and are creating alternative festivals of their own.'  (Introduction)

Kill Your Darlings’ First Book Club pick for September is Vodka & Apple Juice by Jay Martin (Fremantle Press), a warm, engaging memoir of travel in Poland and life inside an Australian embassy from the winner of the City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award.