Karen Wyld
30 Seconds with
Who are you?
an author, and a connoisseur of sunset views, which are best seen on beaches, in the company of smol dogs.
What’s your most recent work?
I released my second novel, Where the Fruit Falls, in October 2020 (UWAP); and late July 2021 my first children’s book will be released, titled Heroes, Rebels and Innovators: Inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from history (illustrated by Jaelyn Biumaiwai; Hachette Australia).
What’s your best advice about writing?
Just keep swimming.
If you could change one thing about the Australian writing sector, what would it be?
The literature sector needs to keep addressing cultural biases and dismantling barriers that particular people encounter, so those rockier pathways to publishing seem less impossible.
How has ACT Writers (MARION) assisted you?
ACT Writers’ (MARION’s) HARDCOPY program was the first and only writing course I’ve done; my participation was made possible through winning the 2018 First Nations Australia Writers’ Network HARDCOPY Scholarship.
What are you currently reading?
As a Master candidate, I’m reading academic papers, but I’ve got After Story by Larissa Behrendt (UQP 2021) to read once I get more of my thesis written.
Who is a contemporary author you’d like to champion and why?
If I could, I’d champion every author that launched a book during COVID, especially writers with debut books.
Karen Wyld is a freelance writer and author living on the coast south of Adelaide. Born in South Australia, her Grandmothers’ Country is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. As a diasporic Aboriginal woman of Martu descent, she writes fiction and non-fiction that seeks to contextualise colonisation, displacement, the Stolen Generations, homecoming, resistance and rights. She’s currently a Masters candidate, exploring how magic realism is used to articulate time, belonging and Country in Aboriginal-authored text.
