Jumaana Abdu

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For October that debut is Translations by Jumaana Abdu (Penguin Random House). Translations is a beautifully moving novel following the lives of Aliyah, her daughter Sakina, and her friend friend Hana as they grapple with a series of personal disasters.

Blak sovereignty is centred in Mykaela Saunders’ inventive new short story collection. Her experiments in form, philosophy and genre offer a visionary exploration of the Tweed Goori community to which she belongs.

Tell Me Again, Men I Trust, The Glass House, The Lovers

As a multi-hyphenated emerging writer with literary aspirations, my identity is inextricable from my art. But representation as an artistic goal feels like too high a price on my soul.