UQP acquires two new books from acclaimed Tasmanian Aboriginal writer Adam Thompson

UQP is delighted to announce that we’ve acquired two new books from pakana author Adam Thompson – a novel and a story collection. Adam’s debut work, Born Into This, was published to much acclaim in 2021, has been reprinted three times. It was shortlisted for The Age Fiction Book of the Year, the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Literary Awards and the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. US rights to Born Into This were sold to the US, where it has received glowing reviews, and just last week was announced as winner of The Story Prize Spotlight Award. This is the first time this award has been won by a writer outside of the US.

The first new book will be a novel set in Launceston that focuses on pakana man, Rusty – a drunk and a social outcast, living on the streets. It’s a story about finding your calling and about cultural obligation. The second will be a companion collection to Born Into This, traversing many of the same themes and even revisiting some of the same characters and settings.

Adam Thompson says: ‘UQP was the perfect home for my debut book, Born Into This, and will be for my first novel and second story collection. It's a fantastic feeling to know that my work is valued. I couldn't be more pleased with this outcome.’

Publisher Aviva Tuffield says: ‘It is an honour to be working with Adam Thompson again on not one but two projects. Adam is a special writer whose fiction is always politically engaged and thought-provoking, yet never heavy handed – his cheeky sense of humour always shines through. It’s what makes his writing both so enjoyable and yet so unforgettable.’

Adam Thompson is an Aboriginal (pakana) writer from Lutruwita (Tasmania) and the author of the story collection Born Into This, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Steele Rudd Award in the QLAs, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and The Age Fiction Book of the Year. Born Into This was also published in the US, where it won the 2022 Story Prize Spotlight Award. Adam has received many grants and fellowships, including being an inaugural Next Chapter Fellow at The Wheeler Centre and a First Nations fellow at Varuna – The Writers House.

For more information, please contact Louise Cornegé on louise.cornege@uqp.com.au or 07 3346 7932