Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Laura Elizabeth Woollett is the author of a short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man (Scribe, 2016), and two novels, Beautiful Revolutionary (Scribe, 2018) and The Newcomer (Scribe, 2021). Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the ALS Gold Medal, while The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. She is a 2020–2022 Marten Bequest Scholar for Prose.

Laura Elizabeth Woollett reviews 'The Rain Heron' by Robbie Arnott

June–July 2020, no. 422 • 26 May 2020

In an unnamed land under the thrall of a mysterious coup, mountain-dweller Ren wants only to live off the grid, undisturbed by human contact. Ren’s familiarity with the natural world becomes a liability when a band of soldiers comes seeking information that only she can provide: the whereabouts of a fabled bird with the ability to make it rain. Despite a decided ambiguity about exactly where an ... (read more)

Laura Elizabeth Woollett reviews 'Stone Sky Gold Mountain' by Mirandi Riwoe

May 2020, no. 421 • 28 April 2020

In this multi-perspective novel, Mirandi Riwoe trains her piercing postcolonial gaze on Gold Rush-era Australia, lending richness to the lives of the Chinese settlers who are often mere footnotes in our history. Ying and Lai Yue are outsiders before their arrival in Far North Queensland, where they have gone to find their fortunes after their younger siblings are sold into slavery. While Ying stru ... (read more)