In early 2012 in Sydney and Melbourne, forty-one new novelists embarked on 'Writing a Novel' - a six-month creative writing course, under the auspices of Faber Academy at Allen & Unwin. Course directors James Bradley, Sophie Cunningham and Kathryn Heyman walked alongside these new writers as they risked metaphorical life and limb, to reveal their determination, commitment, willingness, courage and importantly their talent.

This anthology is a taster of the new writing growing in Australia. Writing which is marked by its energy, insight and range.

The diversity of genre, subject and style in this volume is an eloquent reminder of the fact that despite our contemporary anxiety about the future of books and writing, literature hasn't gone anywhere. There are new and exciting voices emerging all around us, possessed not just of the desire to tell stories but to say something that matters, to articulate something new and important about the world.

Contributors are: Marita Hastings, Sally Abbott, Deborah Biancotti, Margaret Meran Trail, Elizabeth Cunningham, Julie Morgan King, Laura McAuliffe, Rowena Robertson, Paulene Turner, Lisa Breeze, Jo McKay, Kerri Turner, Stephanie King, Chris Brophy, Linda Dement, Nik Rodden, Peter Ward, Jill Gientzotis, Caroline Beecham, Sienna Brown, Gita Mammen, Bethany Adams, Elisabeth Passmore, Keith Whalley, Steph Little, Catherine Horan, Cynthia Pretty, Stuart McCullough, Becky Keft, Isabel Noriega, Elizabeth Jones, Birgit Daller, Maria Boyd, David McMahon, Hannah Bent, and Louisa McGauley.