Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 19 May
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
With each year that passes, Australia consistently produces a wealth of new literary talent. From debut novelists to short-story writers, memoirists to poets, we are truly living in a golden age for the written word.
How to keep up? It’s simple. Once a month, head on down to The Next Big Thing, where you will hear from and meet four exciting new authors, and maybe a few who’ve been around for a while but haven’t had the exposure they deserve. These are the literary stars of tomorrow. Come and hear from them today.
Elizabeth Kuiper spent most of her childhood in Zimbabwe, before moving to Australia. She’s currently studying at the University of Melbourne.
Angela Meyer is an editor, journalist and fiction writer who has appeared at many literary festivals around Australia. Her collection of flash fiction, Captives, is out this month.
Pierz Newton-John is a fiction writer and former psychotherapist. One of the founding members of The School of Life Melbourne, his short-story collection is Fault Lines.
Emily Bitto is a fiction writer and teacher. Her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and is released this month.
Featuring
Pierz Newton-John
Pierz Newton-John is a writer, web developer and former psychotherapist. He is also a founding faculty member of The School of Life Melbourne. His critically acclaimed short-story collection Fault Lines, exploring themes of masculinity, alienation and relationship fracture in contemporary Australia, was published by Spineless Wonders in March 2012.
Emily Bitto
Emily Bitto is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the 2015 Stella Prize ...
Elizabeth Kuiper
Elizabeth Kuiper grew up in Zimbabwe before immigrating to Perth with her mother. In 2016 she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a degree in politics and philosophy. An early extract of Little Stones was longlisted for the Richell Prize, received the Express Media prize for best work of fiction, and was published in Award Winning Australian Writing. Elizabeth is currently studying law at the University of Melbourne. Little Stones is her first novel.
Angela Meyer
Angela Meyer is an award-winning Australian writer and editor. Her debut novel, A Superior Spectre, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the MUD Literary Prize, an Australian Book Industry Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Writing and a Saltire Literary Society Award (Scotland). She is also the author of a novella, Joan Smokes, which won the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award (UK), and a book of flash fiction, Captives.
Angela's second novel, Moon Sugar, will be released in October 2022. Her work has been widely published in magazines, journals and newspapers, including Island, The Big Issue, Best Australian Stories and Kill Your Darlings. She has worked in bookstores, as a book reviewer, in a whisky bar, and as a commissioning editor and publisher. She now works as a freelance editor and consultant. Angela grew up in Northern NSW and lives in Melbourne.