Introducing Graham Akhurst - YA novel 'Borderland' coming in 2018

Hello Darling Readers, 

You may remember way back in June when it was announced that I joined Jacinta Dimase Management as ‘agent-at-large’ ... specifically I joined with a focus on Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction works. 

Well, now I'm thoroughly excited to share with you some details about my first author whose manuscript has sold to Hachette. 

I'd like to introduce you to Graham Akhurst, pictured here signing the contract for his debut YA novel, Borderland - coming out with Hachette in 2018! 

Graham is an Aboriginal writer and academic hailing from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. He has been published in Mascara Literary Review, Westerly, and VerityLa, to name a few, and he is currently enrolled in an MPhil in Creative Writing at The University of Queensland. The two people in the photo with him are Associate Professor Jon Willis and Dr Carlos Rivera - his supervisory team for the MPhil, who he also works with at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit as a tutor. 

I can't tell you too much about Borderland, as Graham and his (amazing!) editor Kate Stevens will be working away on it throughout 2017. But Graham can give you this teaser of what to expect; 

I’m very excited to have signed with Hachette. My debut novel Borderland has been a labour of love, and I hope that it gives the reader an insight into Indigenous youth and issues of identity while also prompting a dialogue about the use of Indigenous land, the effects of colonisation, social justice packages, and cosmological aspects of Indigenous culture through a magic realist narrative.

... and I can tell you that when I was pitching the manuscript, I described it thus; 

BORDERLAND is a YA eco-horror/thriller ... in the vein of Tim Winton’s In the Winter Dark; with a good blending of mythic, Aussie gothic, and a strong conservatism backbone.

Intrigued yet?

I'm incredibly honoured to be Graham's agent, and so excited that his debut Borderland has found a home at Hachette - those brilliant publishers of Aussie spec-fic! 

I'm also incredibly excited for Borderland to join the #LoveOzYA ranks - because Graham and this story are exactly why I joined Jacinta Dimase Management, and entered into this new realm of agenting - to find and champion daring YA stories just like his.