UQP acquires two new books from Mirandi Riwoe, prize-winning author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain
UQP is delighted to announce that we have acquired two new books from Mirandi Riwoe, whose novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won both the 2020 Queensland Literary Award for Fiction and the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize. UQP has acquired world rights to Somewhere Between, a story collection that will include both unpublished and previously published stories and novellas, a number of which have won or been shortlisted for prizes.
We have also acquired Riwoe’s next historical novel, Sunbirds, which will be set in Indonesia in 1941 during World War II. When the Japanese finally arrive on Java’s doorstep, Matthias, a KLM pilot, is conscripted into a squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. First, though, he is given the opportunity to relocate his loved ones to safety in Australia. Will he rescue his fiancée, Wilhelmina, a young Eurasian woman at risk, or Diah, the Indonesian woman he truly loves?
Mirandi Riwoe says of Sunbirds:
‘Being part Chinese-Indonesian, I have a personal interest in writing of the experiences of both the colonised Pribumi (native) Indonesians and Eurasians. Through the depiction of Wilhelmina, Diah and Matthias, I will explore the complications Indonesian and Eurasian people experienced in their sense of identity and belonging when living in a system that favoured the European. I am absolutely thrilled and grateful to be working with Aviva Tuffield and UQP once again on both my story collection and this new novel.’
Publisher Aviva Tuffield says: ‘In my eyesMirandi Riwoe is a superstar who deserves all the recognition she’s received to date for Stone Sky Gold Mountain, and I’m sure there’s more to come. I am honoured that Mirandi has entrusted UQP with her beautifully crafted and varied short stories, along with a new historical novel. Sunbirds will be a gripping and nuanced reimagining of an historical era, yet again putting a human face to the impacts of colonialism and war, and the violence and racism those entail.’
About Mirandi Riwoe
Mirandi Riwoe is the author of the novella The Fish Girl, which won Seizure’s Viva la Novella V and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Award’s UQ Fiction Prize, and Stone Sky Gold Mountain, which won the 2020 Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award and was shortlisted for the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize. Her work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review and Best Summer Stories. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies and lives in Brisbane.
For more information please contact Louise Cornegé, Marketing & Publicity Manager, on louise.cornege@uqp.com.auor 07 3346 7932.
