Books from our Backyard

It was amazing to be at the Poinciana Lounge, when it was  full to the brim of Queensland books, authors, family, friends and literary supporters; double the amount of last year too.

A big thankyou to Queensland Writers Centre for creating a catalogue of Queensland books which goes out to libraries and others to promote Queensland authors and books.

Books from our Backyard  shares the variety of Queensland books, with crime, history, speculative fiction,  children, and young adult fiction, romance, memoir and life stories.

I met  Pia Dowling  who showed me her books on Organic Gardening, and growing and brewing your own coffee and tea.

Then I chatted with Kylie Asmyus about her book set in Townsville, not too far from where I used to live.

Sandy Driessen from Sandpit Stories said hello as did Julie Fison.

I caught up with authors Karen Tyrell, Charmaine Clancy,  and  for the first time in years the amazing Talitha Kalago.  We were on a panel together at the Tropical writer’s festival years ago.

There were some industry people and members of the Queensland Writers Centre who were very welcoming and friendly.  It was good to put faces to names commonly seen in emails or online and receive helpful information and invitations to critique groups and workshops for writers.

You can see the books in display for the next twelve months at the state library Queensland.

Nick Earles, a highly accomplished Queensland author,  gave an address encouraging everyone to purchase and promote the purchase of books by Queenslanders.  Even purchasing just one book a year by a Queenslander could have an enormous difference on the production and sharing of literature created by the writers of Queensland.

He expressed his hope that many more people would be enabled to be career writers through such initiatives.

Books from our Backyard   is out in print and pdf and you’ll see it in libraries near you.  I was happy to see Pam Galeano and Lyn Marshall’s books featured as well.