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Congratulations to Australian Writers’ Centre alumna Veronica Lando who has signed a two-book publishing deal with HarperCollins Australia.
Veronica has completed a range of courses with the Australian Writers’ Centre, which she says have helped shape her writing. These include our core fiction courses Creative Writing Stage 1 and Novel Writing Essentials, as well as speciality courses such as Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder, Cut, Shape, Polish and Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers.
Following her courses, Veronica entered and won the 2021 Banjo Prize with her debut crime novel The Whispering, which has just been released with rave reviews. And now she has secured a two-book publishing deal with HarperCollins Publishers Australia!
“The AWC has provided me with the opportunity to get my book published with a major publishing house, something that only a few years ago I’d have thought would never have been possible. They definitely kickstarted my writing, pushed it forwards and got me over the finish line.”
HarperCollins Publishers Australia is thrilled to announce it has acquired ANZ rights to two new novels by the 2021 Banjo Prize-winning author Veronica Lando from Benjamin Paz at Curtis Brown.
Lando’s debut, The Whispering, has just been published to widespread acclaim and Lando is being hailed as a must-read new voice in Australian rural noir.
The first book in the new deal, The Drowning Girls, is set to be published in July 2023, with a second book to follow in 2024.
The Drowning Girls is another darkly absorbing mystery that delves into the mystic terror of our landscape, this time the mangroves of a small fishing town, and the whispers of a curse and sacrifice to aid prosperous fishing hauls. The annual Drowning Girl Festival seems like a harmless gimmick to entice tourists to the usually sleepy coastal town of Port Flinders. But someone knows the truth about what happened twenty-five years ago to teenager Kelsey Webb – and even the most deeply buried secrets have a way of coming back to the surface.
Veronica Lando said, “I’m utterly thrilled to be publishing two more books with HarperCollins and honestly can’t believe that this whirlwind journey is continuing. They are an incredibly strong publishing house and have gone above and beyond to bring my debut novel to life. I’m excited to continue working with their outstanding and exceptionally dedicated team over the coming years.”
Anna Valdinger, Fiction Publisher said, “Australian crime fiction is enjoying a thrilling renaissance, and Veronica Lando stands out in a vibrant genre for her richly atmospheric, twisty stories that draw on landscape, superstition, secrets and the claustrophobia of small towns. She is a joy to work with and her imagination is boundless. I am delighted at the prospect of more books from this bright new talent.”
HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With over 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year, in over 30 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles.
Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Miles Franklin Award, the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize. Publishing Australian stories since 1888, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, incorporating the Angus & Robertson imprint, is Australia’s foundation publisher. It is a subsidiary of News Corp.
Congratulations to Veronica on this exciting news!
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