Where We Begin

In stores August 25 2020

Seventeen-year-old Anna is running into the night. Fleeing her boyfriend, her mother, and everything she has known.

She is travelling into the country, to the land and the grandparents she has never met, looking for answers to questions that have never been asked.

For every family has secrets.

But some secrets – once laid bare – can never be forgiven.

A dark, deeply compelling, coming-of-age YA novel from the author of As Stars Fall.

#MeToo: Stories from the Australian movement

‘An extremely important anthology’ Tracey Spicer

In October 2017, the hashtag MeToo went viral.

Since then we’ve watched controversy erupt around Geoffrey Rush, Germaine Greer and Junot Díaz. We’ve talked about tracking the movement back via Helen Garner, Rosie Batty and Hannah Gadsby. We’ve discussed #NotAllMen, toxic masculinity and trolls. We’ve seen the #MeToo movement evolve and start to accuse itself – has it gone too far? Is it enough? What does it mean in this country?

And still, women are not safe from daily, casual sexual harassment and violence.

In this collection thirty-five contributors share their own #MeToo stories, analysis and commentary to survey the movement in an Australian context.

This collection resists victimhood. It resists silence. It insists on change.

As Stars Fall

The fire was fast and hot … only days after it went through, there were absolutely no birds left. I should have seen it as an omen, the birds all leaving like that.

Robin is a self-confessed bird-nerd from the country, living in the city.

On the first day at her new school, she meets Delia. Delia is freaky and definitely not good for Robin’s image.

Seth, Delia’s brother, has given up school to prowl the city streets. He is angry at everything, especially the fire that killed his mother.

When a rare and endangered bird turns up in the city parklands, the lives of Robin, Seth and Delia become fatefully and dangerously intertwined …

“unique”       

“creative and brilliantly written”

Readings – http://www.readings.com.au/review/as-stars-fall-by-christie-nieman

“for readers who like to sink into their books and quietly and unexpectedly fall in love”

Inkcrush – http://inkcrush.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/as-stars-fall-by-christie-nieman.html

“this is masterful writing”

Butterfly Elephant – http://butterfly-elephant.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/book-review-as-stars-fall-by-christie.html

ABC Shop Australian Young Adult Title of the Month – JULY 2014

Read an extract

Other anthologies

Mothers and Others: Australian writers on why not all women are mothers and not all mothers are the same

“Nieman’s essay was a stand out for me”  

Kara Nicholson, Readings

Australian women have their say about cultural expectations around women and motherhood.

Being a mother, or not being a mother, has never been so complicated. The list of rights and wrongs gets longer daily, with guilt-ridden mothers struggling to keep on top of it all, and non-mothers battling a culture that defines women by their wombs.

In this collection of fiction and non-fiction stories, edited by Christie Nieman, Natalie Kon-yu, Maggie Scott and Miriam Sved, Australian women reflect on motherhood: how it should be and how it really is. Their stories tackle everything from the decision not to have children to the so-called war between working and stay-at-home mums. Including special contributions by Rosie Batty and Deborra-Lee Furness, the stories explore every topic from infertility and IVF, to step-parenting and adoption, to miscarriage and breastfeeding, child meltdowns and marriage breakdowns, as well as giving a much-needed voice to those who won’t ever be called ‘Mum’.

Just Between Us: Australian writers tell the truth about female friendship

Australian women have their say about cultural expectations around women and friendship.

While falling in and out of romantic love is a well-documented experience, losing a friend rarely gets discussed. Which doesn’t mean the pain is less – quite the opposite. Friendships between women are often characterised as happy shopping buddies or as catty one-upperers, but as we discover in this extraordinary collection of heartfelt fiction and non-fiction works, real female friendship is as deep and rich and heroic and heartbreaking as any bromance.

Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott, Natalie Kon-Yu and Miriam Sved are Melbourne writers and academics. Once they realised there was no book that examined these issues from a contemporary perspective, they decided to make their own, Just Between Us.