Book Launch & In Conversation with Shelley Burr author of Wake
Wednesday 27 April 2022, 6–7:30pm
Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle's beaches and her grandparents' farm in Glenrowan, and on the road between the two. When not writing, she works in environmental policy in Canberra and is studying agriculture at the University of New England, with a focus on soil science. She is an alumnus of the ACT Writers Hardcopy program (2018) and a Varuna fellow. WAKE won the CWA Debut Dagger Award in 2019 and was shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and the Bath Novel Award.
Chris Hammer was a journalist for more than thirty years, dividing his career between covering Australian federal politics and international affairs. For many years he was a roving foreign correspondent for SBS TV's flagship current affairs program Dateline. He reported from more than thirty countries on six continents. In Canberra, roles included chief political correspondent for The Bulletin, current affairs correspondent for SBS TV and a senior political journalist for The Age.
Chris is the author of The River (ACT Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Walkley Book Award and the Manning Clark House National Cultural Award) Scrublands, published in 2018 and was shortlisted for Best Debut Fiction at the Indie Book Awards, shortlisted for Best General Fiction at the Australian Book Industry Awards, shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and won the UK Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Debut Dagger Award. Silver was published in 2019 and was shortlisted for Best General Fiction at the Australian Book Industry Awards, shortlisted for the 2020 ABA Booksellers' Choice Book of the Year Award, and longlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Trust was published in 2020 and was longlisted for Best General Fiction at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Treasure & Dirt came out in 2021.
Shelley Burr will be In Conversation with Chris Hammer at the launch of her award winning debut novel Wake.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO YOUNG EVIE McCREERY?
A searing debut crime novel where the grief and guilt surrounding an unsolved disappearance still haunt a small farming community . . . and will ultimately lead to a reckoning.
Evelyn simply vanished.
The small town of Nannine lies in the harsh red interior of New South Wales. Once a thriving outback centre, years of punishing drought have whittled it down to no more than a couple of pubs and a police station. And its one sinister claim to fame: the still-unsolved disappearance of Evelyn McCreery nineteen years ago from the bedroom she shared with her twin sister.
Mina McCreery's life has been defined by the intense and ongoing public interest in her sister's case. Now an anxious and reclusive adult, Mina lives alone on her family's sunbaked destocked sheep farm. The million-dollar reward her mother established to solve the disappearance has never been paid out.
Enter Lane Holland, a private investigator who dropped out of the police academy to earn a living cracking cold cases. Lane has his eye on the unclaimed money, but he also has darker motivations for wanting to solve the case.
Compulsively readable, with an unforgettable setting and cast of characters, WAKE is a powerful, unsparing story of how trauma ripples outward when people's private tragedies become public property, and how it's never too late for the truth to set things right.
“An effortlessly accomplished, astonishing debut set against the heat and isolation of the Australian outback, deftly unpicking the layered repercussions of a decades-old crime. This is a sharply observed unravelling of trauma and survival, exploring which crimes get to make the headlines and stay in the public’s consciousness. Gripping rural noir at its tense and atmospheric best, which will hook you from the very first paragraph. WAKE is a standout debut and Shelley Burr, a voice that will make you sit up and take notice”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Registration is required for this event.
Accessible parking spaces are available around campus should you require them. This is an in-person, indoor event and ANU requires masks to be worn.
To help keep everyone safe, please ensure that you are familiar with, and follow, the advice from ACT Health regarding COVID-19. If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event.