Editor’s picks: the best new books to add to your reading list
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When it comes to books, I like the words of Margaret Atwood, who it is fair to say knows a few things about writing and reading: “I read for pleasure, and that is the moment at which I learn most. Subliminal learning.” There are masses of books in the shops – or you can order online or click-and-collect – but here are just a few new ones that might help you negotiate winter weeks at home.
Emma Batchelor. Photo: Jesse Petrie.
A YOUNG writer who has long been part of Canberra’s arts community is the winner of the $20,000 Vogel Literary Award for 2021.
Emma Batchelor, 32, has won a publication deal with Allen & Unwin, which launched the Vogel in 1980, for her debut auto-fiction novel âNow That I See Youâ, based on her experiences when her partnerâs emerging transgender status shattered their relationship.
Batchelorâs connections to the Canberra arts community run deep.
Her mum, Wendy, has worked at the Canberra Theatre Centre for 14 years, while Emma has also worked at the box office there on and off for 13 years, and still does weekend shifts, while holding down a full-time job with advocacy organisation the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
Event description
Please join us for one of the most anticipated conversations of the year. Canberran, Emma Batchelor will be In Conversation with Zoya Patel About this Event
Please join us for one of the most anticipated conversations of the year. Canberran, Emma Batchelor will be In Conversation with Zoya Patel discussing her award-winning novel Now
That I See You - an authentic and original exploration of complicated love. An event not to be missed!
About
Now That I See You
Now That I See You details the breakdown of a long-term relationship after one partner discloses to the other that they are transgender. This piece of autofiction is told from the perspective of a female narrator over a period of eighteen months, spanning the first discovery of unknown feminine hairs in her male partner’s bathroom through Jess’s transition from presenting as male to female, and then to the relationship’s eventual disintegration. Personal journal entries and letters to Je