Publishers’ top picks: Australian fiction

A new publisher, a new literary agency and the Australian fiction on offer at LBF.

Members of newest Australian literary agency on the block, a4 Literary – for which former Left Bank Literary agents Grace Heifetz and Tom Gilliatt joined forces with Michaela McGuire and Rebecca Slater – are attending LBF en masse this year. Among the titles they will be spruiking, Slater highlighted two: ‘We’re very excited to have Madeleine Gray’s new novel, Chosen Family [forthcoming locally with S&S imprint Summit Books], to share at this fair, following the success of Gray’s Green Dot both here and overseas. We’re also thrilled to be taking Laura McCluskey’s atmospheric debut crime novel The Wolf Tree [published by HarperCollins in Australia], which is already garnering overseas deals and attention.’

Also attending LBF in great numbers are the staff members of new Australian independent Keeperton. Founded by Australian author TL Swan and boasting former Hachette Australia group publishing director Fiona Hazard as head of global strategy and development, Keeperton publishes romance under its Arndell imprint. Said Hazard of the publisher’s aspirations for LBF: ‘We have huge hopes for Australian author Ann Penny’s romance series Love, Beauty, Soul, which features second-chance romances across three interconnected stories. Arndell will publish all three (Capturing Love, Finding Beauty, Saving Soul) in print, [ebook] and audio, simultaneously in a global English-language release later this year. We were captivated by Ann’s layered, inter-connected storytelling, which gives readers the perfect balance of romance, self-discovery, healing and redemption. Ann’s books would be a great addition to an established or growing romance imprint looking for a new author, whose writing is at the milder end of the spice scale, to build and grow.’

Among those at LBF from Hachette will be Hachette Australia CEO Louise Stark and publishing director Joel Naoum. In addition to ‘a very exciting project that we’re yet to announce that will likely end up being one of our big focuses of the fair’, Naoum said Hachette is ‘also very excited by the ongoing attention on The Vanishing Place, published by our Aotearoa New Zealand colleagues, which [the company] recently announced secured a hugely exciting six-figure US deal with Berkley’.

And while his attendance and that of Zeitgeist co-founder Benython Oldfield were yet to be confirmed at the time of print, Samuel Bernard of Zeitgeist reported that both Sharon Galant from the London office and Thomasin Chinnery from the Brussels office would be on the ground at LBF in 2025. Among the Australian titles the team will be pitching, Ever Blessed, the debut novel by Olivia O’Flynn that was acquired locally by HarperCollins Australia at a ‘heated auction across several of the big five publishers’, is a particular highlight. ‘Olivia ignites everything that makes romantasy so addictive – maxing out on the chilli gauge, lush worldbuilding, pulse-pounding stakes, and fierce heroines,’ said Bernard. ‘This novel is as seductive and delicious as it is unputdownable. With its intoxicating mix of danger, desire, and adventure, this is the book everyone will be talking about at the London Book Fair.’ (Said the author herself, ‘Born from the question: “What would have happened if Hippolyta, an Amazon Warrior, had survived her ill-fated relationship?”, the world of Ever Blessed was born – and then completely reimagined. Spoiler alert: communication and competency is hot, and Ever Blessed is primed to send BookTok girlies into a global frenzy.’)

One Australian agent confirmed to be making the trip across to LBF this year is Nerrilee Weir of Bold Type Agency. Among the titles Bold Type will be representing is Don’t Say His Name (Rachel Givney), to be published locally by Ultimo in August 2025. Sarah McKenzie of Sarah McKenzie Literary Management, for whom Bold Type will represent the title at LBF, highlighted the title, pointing to the success of Givney’s previous two novels, Jane in Love and Secrets My Father Kept, which ‘have been published in twenty territories and translated into fourteen languages’, McKenzie reported. According to McKenzie, Ultimo acquired ANZ rights to Givney’s latest following ‘enthusiastic bids from multiple publishers’. ‘Fast-paced, clever and darkly comic, Don’t Say His Name was originally inspired by the unsolved Wanda Beach murders, where rumours quickly spread that a crime so mysterious and disturbing could only be explained by devil worship, urban legend and witchcraft,’ said McKenzie.

Making the relatively short trip across the channel for LBF will be Paris-based American agent Gregory Messina, who represents a select group of Australian authors. Messina highlighted the novel Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee, published in Australia by Affirm this month. ‘Victoria Brownlee used to live in Paris and queried me in 2017 for her first novel, Fromage à Trois, which I sold to Quercus and then in translation,’ said Messina, who continues to represent Brownlee ‘even though she is back in Australia now’.

‘I expect interest at LBF because romantic comedies are having a moment and Victoria Brownlee’s stands out from the pack,’ said Messina. ‘It is a clever, fun idea about competing food writers, and it’s set in the south of France to boot, always an attractive setting for international readers. Since Victoria’s debut … was translated into six languages, I know there’s already an interest in her writing amongst foreign editors.’

img class=”wp-image-266851 size-medium alignleft” src=”https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Love-Unedited-192×300.jpg” alt=”Cover of Love Unedited” width=”192″ height=”300″ />Messina will also be pitching Love Unedited by Caro Llewellyn, published locally by Pan Macmillan under its Picador imprint. ‘Llewellyn’s memoir Diving Into Glass (Hamish Hamilton, 2019) was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, and this is her fiction debut. I believe Love Unedited has potential with international editors because it’s a very cleverly structured novel; it’s a book within a book in which both stories are connected in surprising ways. It hits that sought-after sweet spot between commercial and literary fiction, and it’s super meta, in a fun way.’

At Text, rights and contracts director Anne Beilby is excited for an acquisition so new ‘we don’t have a cover image yet’. Griefdogg is the latest work by Michael Winkler, an indie publishing success story, whose debut, Grimmish (picked up by Puncher & Wattman after being self-published), was shortlisted (briefly) for Australia’s premier literary award, the Miles Franklin. Winkler’s latest is due from Text, which holds world rights, in March 2026. ‘What a strange novel this is,’ said Beilby. ‘It’s about so many things: hydrogeology, rivers, guilt, grief, sex, a switch in identity from a husband and father to a pet (yes, really), and so much more besides. Michael Winkler is a kind of genius, and he demands intense focus from the reader, which in its strange way this novel rewards. It has a plot of sorts, is full of events and action, and is phenomenally well written.’ Beilby won’t be attending LBF this year, but co-founder Michael Heyward and senior editor Penny Hueston – until very recently owners of Text – will be at the fair in person.

At HarperCollins, the team is ‘hugely excited about the international potential of The Revisionists by Michelle Johnston’, to be published locally under the Fourth Estate imprint in July 2025, and which ‘will appeal to readers of Charlotte Wood, Claire Messud and Heather Rose’. HarperCollins CEO Jim Demetriou will be attending LBF in person, and the HarperCollins rights team will hold virtual meetings prior to the fair. Said HarperCollins publisher Catherine Milne: ‘I read the manuscript in two sittings, in a rush of adrenalin, excitement and deep admiration.  Michelle Johnston is such a deeply empathetic, elegant and intelligent writer – but one who also knows how to pull a reader into a story, and not let them go. In this novel, which sets a cracking pace, drawing in the reader so tightly it almost reads like a thriller, she lays bare with scalpel-sharp precision the terrible consequences of the conflict between a person’s principles and their desire for acclaim […] I truly believe that this thrilling and brilliantly compelling novel, which examines the malleability of memory and the slippery nature of the truth – and the lengths that people will go to avoid facing both – will be her break-out. It deserves to be.’

While they will not be at LBF to pitch their titles in person, several other Australian publishers highlighted fiction titles they believe worthy of international interest.

At Pantera, publisher Lex Hirst singled out In Spite of You (Patrick Lenton, Pantera): ‘Patrick Lenton writes the most delightfully spiky knowable characters and the balance of love, spite and friendship in this book is sure to charm readers all over. Think Fleabag meets Boyfriend Material, but set in a new media office.’

At Fremantle, rights agent and CEO Alex Allan points to Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard, for which Fremantle holds world rights (ex ANZ). ‘Holden’s characters step confidently off the page into Stan’s TV adaptation of Invisible Boys, the classic Australian coming-of-age novel,’ said Allan. ‘This provides a great opportunity for international publishers to back this powerful and, at times, confronting story.’

Category: Think Australian feature