The Big Issue

The Big Issue’s big literary soiree!

Our fiction edition is coming out in less than two weeks and we’ll be holding a launch event on August 30 at Readings in St Kilda. Novelist Toni Jordan will do the official launching business and writers Chris Womersley, Nic Low and Laura Jean McKay will be reading excepts of their fiction edition stories. Come along and trade air kisses with us! For a full list of the selected writers and more details on the launch, see the Readings calendar.

We’re also holding an event  as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival on 27 August. Fiction edition co-editors, Melissa Cranenburgh and Jo Case will chat with writers Nick Earls and Peggy Frew. More details and tickets here.

Fiction edition giveaway (it’s pretty good!)

We’ll also be doing an excellent reader giveaway with this special upcoming edition. A Big Issue reader will win four books by four of our great fiction edition writers.

The books are: House of Sticks by Peggy  Frew, The Fix by Nick Earls, Bereft by Chris Womersley (which was shortlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Award) and Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse (which won the Miles Franklin in 2001).

To be in the running, you need to write a letter to the editor (100 words or less) for publication on the Big Issue’s ‘Your Say’ page. Submissions must be  in no later than Monday 22 August. You can write about pretty much anything you think will interest our readers (although we don’t so much enjoy roadkill frittata recipes, deranged frittata conspiracy theories and/or shaggy-frittata tales). It’s going to be pretty competitive this edition, so an industrial-strength suck-up letter about how much you love The Big Issue is obviously your best bet if you’re serious about winning.

Send your ‘Your Say’ letter to editorial@bigissue.org.au. Good luck!