For some years now, my first Monday Musings of the year has comprised a selected list of new Australian book releases for the coming year. For many years, the bulk of this post came from a comprehensive list prepared by Jane Sullivan for the Sydney Morning Herald. Last year that changed to something more selective, and this year, I think it is similar, but is paywalled.

So, this year the research is all mine, mainly from publisher websites, but also from a couple of other sources like publisher emails. The sources varied in how well and thoroughly they shared their forthcoming titles, and many only cover the early part of the year, as you can tell from my list.

Links on the authors’ names are to my posts on those authors.

Fiction

As always, I have included some but not all the genre fiction I found to keep the list manageable and somewhat focused, and I have not included books for younger readers. Here’s my selection:

• Debra Adelaide, When I am sixty-four (March, UQP): based on Adelaide’s friendship with Gabrielle Carey
• Romy Ash, Mantle (April, Ultimo Press)
• Johanna Bell, Department of the Vanishing (March, Transit Lounge)
• Bridie Blake, The boyfriend clause (March, Text): debut novel (romance)
• Brendan Colley, The season for flying saucers (April, Transit Lounge)
• Abby Corson, Happy woman (April, Ultimo Press): cosy crime
• Amanda Curtin, Six days (August, Upswell)
• Alan Fyfe, The cross thieves (March, Transit Lounge)
• Sulari Gentill, Chasing Odysseus (The Hero Trilogy, Book 1, plus Books 2 & 3) (May, Ultimo Press)
• Robert Gott, The winter murders (latest in the Seasonal Murders) (August, Scribe)
• Christine Gregory, The informant (May, Ultimo Press)
• Victoria Hannan, I love the whole world! (August, Penguin)
• Anita Heiss, The paradise pact (March, Simon and Schuster): First Nations
• Eva Hornung, The minstrels (March, Text)
• Ian Kemish, Two islands (February, UQP): debut novel
• George Kemp, Soft serve (February, UQP): debut novel
• Emily Lighezzolo, Life drawing (March, UQP)
• Laure McPhee-Browne, Worry doll (June, Scribe)
• Melissa Manning, Frogsong (March, UQP)
• Sean Micallef, DeAth takes a holiday (March, Ultimo Press)
• Jaclyn Moriarty, Time travel for beginners (August, Ultimo Press)
• John Morrissey, Bird deity (February, Text): First Nations
• Angela O’Keeffe, Phantom days (April, UQP)
• Ellena Savage, The ruiners (no date, Summit)
• Bobuq Sayed, No god but us (May, Ultimo Press): debut novel
• M.L. Stedman, A far-flung life (March, Penguin)
• Olivia Tolich, Side character energy (February, Text): debut novel (romance)
• Steve Toltz, A rising of the lights (April, Penguin)
• Sita Walker, In a common hour (January, Ultimo Press)
• Dave Warner, Sound mind dead body (no date, Fremantle Press)
• Fiona Wilkes, I remember everything (no date, Fremantle Press)
• Chloe Wilson, The turnbacks (May, Penguin): debut novel
• Michael Winkler, Griefdogg (March, Text)
• Fiona Wright, Kill your boomers (March, Ultimo Press)

There are a few familiar names here, including some from whom we’ve not heard for a while (like Eva Hornung, Amanda Curtin and Romy Ash) and others who have published in other forms but are making their novel debuts (like Chloe Wilson).

Short stories

None that I saw.

Nonfiction

Divided into two broad categories …

Life-writing (loosely defined)

• Cynthia Banham, Mother shadow: A meditation on maternal inheritance (April, Upswell)
• Clara Brack, The secret landscapes: On not pleasing your mother (April, Upswell)
• Valerie A Brown, The girl on the roof: The life of a change-maker (June, Scribe)
• David Carlin and Peta Murray, How to dress for old age (February, Upswell)
• Rosalie Ham, Look after your feet (April, Allen & Unwin)
• Kate Holden, The ruin of magic: Longing and belonging in strange times (April, Black Inc)
• Susan Lever, A.D. Hope: A life (March, La Trobe University Press/Black Inc)
• Linda Martin, A tale of two publishing houses: A behind-the-scenes look into the publishing industry (April, Fremantle Press)
• Jim Morrison, Tony Hansen, Alan Carter and Steve Mickler (ed), Why weren’t we told? (November, Upswell): First Nations stolen generation stories
• Patrick Mullins, The stained man: a crime, a scandal, and the making of a nation (April, Scribe)
• Lisa Wilkinson, The Titanic story of Evelyn (April, Hachette)
• Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Hell days (September, Scribe)

History and other non-fiction

• Julie Andrews, Where’s all the community? Aboriginal Melbourne revisited (March, Black Inc): First Nations
• Danielle Clode, The enigmatic echidna: Secrets of the world’s most curious creature (May, Black Inc)
• Michael Dulaney, Sentinels: how animals warn us of disease (August, Scribe)
• Peter Hartcher, The Age of Carnivores: How Australia can navigate the new global order (March, Black Inc)
• Andrew Leigh, The shortest history of innovation (February, Black Inc)
• Martin McKenzie-Murray, Sirens: Inside the shadow world of first responders (April, Black Inc)
• Ross McMullin, The light on the hill: An updated history of the Australian Labor Party (June, Scribe)
• Desmond Manderson, High time: How Australia changed its mind about illegal drugs (April, La Trobe University Press/Black Inc)
• Murray Pittock, The shortest history of Scotland (February, Black Inc)
• Erin Vincent, Fourteen ways of looking (March, Upswell)

Poetry

Finally, for poetry lovers, I found these from publisher websites:

• Beverley Farmer, For the seasons: Haikus (February, Giramondo): posthumous publication
• Susan Fealy, The deer woman (May, Upswell)
• Toby Fitch, Or, an autobiography (March, Upswell)
• Yvette Henry Holt, Fitzroy North 3068 (May, Upswell)
• Kristen Lang , [re]turn: love notes from the mountain (February, Upswell)
• Caitlin Maling, Midwest (September, Upswell)
• Maria van Neerven, Two tongues (February, UQP): First Nations
• Dženana Vucic, after war (April, UQP)

So far I have read only two from my 2025 lists, one less than I had last year, but I have several on the TBR. Will I finish those, and how will I go this year?

PS I published this on Saturday NOT Monday by mistake! Oh well, you get my list early. If I find more titles I will add them.

Meanwhile, anything here interest you?