"You talk about Gerald Murnane & your varying recollections about the editing process on his debut, Tamarisk Row. He thought u were too interventionist? That was at my very 1st book publishing job at Heinemann. He never forgave me, ever, & still hasn’t" www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/the-...

Australian authors long wrote under the looming shadow of Britain. Hilary McPhee, along with her friend Diana Gribble, set about to help change this with their iconic publishing house McPhee Gribble. Read our new interview with the pioneering publisher in KYD: bit.ly/4uodR5o

Graphic novelist Lee Lai on their Stella Prize win. Read the interview in full in KYD magazine: bit.ly/4udFQof

One the eve of The Stella Prize announcement, KYD content creator Sohani Goonetillake checked in with the surprised, slightly scared and incredibly talented winner, the graphic novelist Lee Lai. Read the interview in full in KYD magazine: bit.ly/4udFQof

Editor’s Note is a new monthly newsletter series that looks at bookish trends and controversies, local lit world happenings and what makes us tick at Kill Your Darlings. Sign up here: bit.ly/43aRUdQ

This isn’t the farm you thought you knew. Read our new Q&A with Elizabeth Brennan and James Jackson, the writers behind Bloomshed's adaption of Animal Farm, on reimagining Orwell’s classic fable for an Australian audience. Read Now: bit.ly/3R6CPHE

Receive professional, objective and encouraging guidance from an experienced editor with a KYD Manuscript Assessment. From now until 31 May, we’re offering $100 off all bookings made for manuscripts of 50,000 words or more! Learn more: bit.ly/3R5Prif

A Little Unwell by @drkerryjewell.bsky.social is a compelling, candid and darkly funny novel that explores the modern realities of our dysfunctional public health system. Read an extract online at KYD now. A Little Unwell is out now via Hachette. 🔗 bit.ly/4njvDUr

"With the benefit of hindsight and time away from the bright spotlight that swallowed Dunham during her Girls years, she writes about that time in her life with a clarity, self-awareness and bittersweet wit" www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/the-... via @kydmagazine.bsky.social

The 2010s were peak main character energy for millennial women. But some say their feminism is dead. The heyday of the girlboss has left a complicated legacy, as Lena Dunham’s Famesick attests. Read more: bit.ly/42v3tfJ

Scarlett Harris on Lena Dunham and the longevity of 2010's 'bad' feminism. Read more: bit.ly/42v3tfJ

This was not an easy piece to write for @kydmagazine.bsky.social but a pleasure nonetheless - Debra Adelaide's novel on Gabrielle Carey is a little marvel and deserving of attention. Thank you to Suzy Garcia and Rebecca Starford for their careful edits. www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/dear...

I got involved with the Lena Dunham/millennial feminism discourse www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/the-... via @kydmagazine.bsky.social

"The 2010s were peak main character energy for millennial women... We were also, in true millennial vernacular, problematic." www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/the-... via @kydmagazine.bsky.social

The 2010s were peak main character energy for millennial women. But some say their feminism is dead. The heyday of the girlboss has left a complicated legacy, as Lena Dunham’s Famesick attests.

ICYMI: In the latest story in our New Short Fiction series, Rachel Ang's vividly imaginative Son, motherhood comes with some surprising challenges. Read it here: buff.ly/IPZ8PT7

A Little Unwell by Kerry Jewel is a compelling, candid and darkly funny novel that explores the modern realities of our dysfunctional public health system. Read an extract online at KYD now: bit.ly/4ey1LBs

Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 gothic horror story inspired an immortal Hitchcock film. Now, a new adaptation starring Paula Arundell brings this classic to the stage at Belvoir St, a version feverish and suspenseful for a new age, with new anxieties. 🐦‍⬛ For tickets and more info: bit.ly/4cTAisS

‘Ghostson arrived in the middle of the night. First I would notice a chill in the air, then see his icy fingers feeling feebly around the baby’s bed, and he would cling to the edge of the bassinet until daybreak, his curious eyes staring down at his brother for hours.’—Rachel Ang

Motherhood is a haunted house in this wildly original short story by Rachel Ang. Read it here: bit.ly/4dmlTp1

New for your TBR list 📚 Antoun Issa powerfully captures his mother's true experiences of love, heartbreak and new hope during the violence of civil war. 'Rebirth' brings to light a young woman's extraordinary journey through war, tragedy, migration and renewal. Available now: bit.ly/49jMlgB

Exciting news! Melanie Cheng's short fiction Australian Short Story is travelling further afield, translated into Chinese for legendary magazine, Mengya. Read the original story by @cheng_melanie here: buff.ly/Dbzdvim and find out more about the translation at mengya.com.

How do you explain the value of being loved? Margaret, Are You Leaving? is an uplifting and life-affirming novel about family lost and found. It celebrates the messiness of family and the beauty of life in all its heartache and wonder. Read an excerpt in KYD: buff.ly/q2d0LlP

Calling all non-fiction writers ✏️ Applications for the University of Melbourne's Peter Blazey Fellowship are now open! One writer will be awarded $20,000 for a work in progress in the fields of biography, autobiography and life writing. Applications close 27 July 2026. Learn more: bit.ly/4u6oYiE

‘This is Adelaide’s generous accomplishment. When I’m Sixty-Four is likely to send you straight to the library of Gabrielle Carey’s books.’ @samtwyfordmoore.bsky.social

Exciting opportunity from the University of Melbourne: The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize is now open! The $20,000 prize supports an Irish poet to visit Australia Applications close 22 June 2026. Learn More: bit.ly/48Q2slR

‘When a book has more hype than history, it’s hard not to be sceptical […] a novel that is quickly crafted from zeitgeisty discourse, workshopped with a star and likely optimised for shareability begs the question: as a work of art, rather than simply ‘content’, is it any good?’ —Ruby Munsie

The Water Takes is a work of astonishing literary imagination with the urgent page-turning propulsion of a thriller. Read an extract from Sarah Walker's powerful debut online at KYD now: buff.ly/Ubtfxyq The Water Takes is out now via Simon & Schuster Australia.

Have you ever wondered if your book is…watching you? 👀 Our KYD Spotlight pick for this month is Phantom Days by @angelaokeeffewriter (@uqpbooks)—an eerie, elegant and unforgettable novel exploring the strange ways stories shape, complicate and safeguard our lives. Learn more: bit.ly/4tA8dgi

‘Is it enough to enjoy firelight and the company of others to minimise one’s individual footprint amid horrifying entropy and structural violence? [...] Or is organised action necessary? This may be Balle’s overarching concern.’ —Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Frankness comes before fiction in Debra Adelaide’s homage to her late friend in When I’m Sixty-Four, writes @samtwyfordmoore.bsky.social.

There’s still a pinch of time to enter! Find out more: buff.ly/qaq9fql

Calling all poets! ✏️ The 2026 Wesley Michel Wright Prize is now open. The $5,450 prize is awarded for an original work of verse or poetry. Applications close 22 June 2026. Learn More: bit.ly/4cpNS5H

“Is it enough to enjoy firelight and the company of others to minimise one’s individual footprint amid horrifying entropy and structural violence? To make individual sense of it all through the arrangement of words on paper? Or is organised action necessary?”

Absolutely love these books

Laura Elizabeth Woollett on the literary sensation that is On the Calculation of Volume. Read more: bit.ly/4vzbwW1

In our fast-paced attention economy, how did On the Calculation of Volume, a ruminative Danish series about a woman living the same day on repeat, become an international bestseller? Read a new review from KYD Critic Laura Elizabeth Woollett: bit.ly/4vzbwW1

The 2026 Kate Challis RAKA Award is now open! The $25,000 award is for the best book of fiction published between 2021-2026 and written in English by an Indigenous author. Applications close 9 June 2026. Learn More: bit.ly/4mxXHmK

A new one for 📚 your TBR pile. Kate Holden's latest book 'In The Ruin of Magic' follows in the footsteps of Katherine May, Maggie Nelson and André Aciman, crafting essays of intimate personal experience and sharply informed rumination on life in strange times. Learn more: bit.ly/4uE9cMU

Today in KYD, Ruby Munsie (aka Literary Luddite) reviews the most hyped-up book of 2026, Caro Claire Burke's viral tradwife novel, Yesteryear, and asks: 'As a work of art, rather than simply ‘content’, is it any good?' Read more: bit.ly/4tBp5Cr

The testimonials are in for our Mentors Program💡⭐️ Don't miss out: Applications close 11:59pm Sunday 12 April. bit.ly/3V6fh4q

Edited by four emerging voices, Crip Stories is a gathering of vibrant and diverse experiences from disabled people. Bringing together memoir, essays and poetry, these writers explore creativity, care, rage and refusal. ⭐️ Learn More: bit.ly/4sAxaYc

💡 Our Mentors Program gives you the opportunity to work with experienced, award-winning writers like @omarbinmusa, whose latest novel, Fierceland, won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award’s Prize for Fiction. 🔔 Applications close 11:59pm Sunday 12 April—learn more: bit.ly/3V6fh4q

🎉 Submissions are now open for Kill Your Darling’s Flash Fiction Prize. We welcome submissions of previously unpublished stories between 750 and 1000 words. Learn more: bit.ly/4bkeEvC

🔔 Deadline Extended! 🔔 Applications for the KYD Mentors Program now close Sunday 12 April. Apply now for the chance to participate in a comprehensive and structured editorial mentorship in the development of a long-form work of fiction or non-fiction. 🔗 Application details here: bit.ly/3V6fh4q

@samtwyfordmoore.bsky.social on AI in fiction and Steve Toltz's latest novel, A Rising of Lights. Read more: bit.ly/4dESAyz

What if the choices of women centuries apart could echo across time? This beautiful new short story collection by Ingrid Horrocks follows nine extraordinary women. At their heart is 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who illuminates the threads that connect them. Learn More: bit.ly/4rPFx0M

Tech’s big threat to the modern man offers few laughs in Steve Toltz’s fourth novel, A Rising of Lights. Read the first review by KYD Critic @samtwyfordmoore.bsky.social in 2026: bit.ly/41t3YpU

Raeden Richardson, author of Miles Franklin-longlisted The Degenerates, out via Text Publishing, on what makes for bad writing feedback. Read more in our latest What I Wish I'd Known: bit.ly/4uBy73F

✨️ ‘Doing the KYD Mentors Program was the best decision I ever made for my manuscript’ @nicholastimmsauthor ✨️ Congratulations to past KYD mentee Nicholas Timms, whose crime novel The Lineup is being published by @penguinbooksaus in July! Apply to KYD Mentors Program now: bit.ly/3V6fh4q