When was the last time you visited a zoo? Well, now imagine you’re visiting the last zoo on Earth and you have the premise for Emma Sloley’s new book, The Island of Last Things. In this episode, Emma shares the inspiration, research and publishing experience for this book and some of the larger themes this piece of fiction evokes.
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Links mentioned in this episode
- WIN Tom Clancy Executive Power by Andrews & Wilson
- Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
- Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer
Writer in residence: Emma Sloley
Emma Sloley began her career as an editor at Harper's Bazaar Australia before moving to New York to become a freelance travel writer.
Her short fiction and creative non-fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Catapult, Literary Hub, The Common, Joyland, and The Masters Review Anthology.
Her short story, ‘The Blood Recluse', was a finalist for the Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s award and long listed for the Disquiet International Writers Prize and the International Literary Seminar Fiction Contest, both in 2022. Her short story, ‘Sugartown', was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize & the 2022 Bridport Prize.
Her travel writing has been published in Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Departures, Coastal Living, Gourmet Traveller, Virtuoso Life and New York magazine, among many others.
Emma is a MacDowell fellow and in 2021 received a Rona Jaffe Foundation scholarship to the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference. Her debut novel, Disaster's Children, was published by Little A Books in 2019. Her second novel, The Island of Last Things, will be published by Flatiron books in 2025.
Born in Australia, Emma now divides her time between the US, Mexico, and various airport lounges. She lives with her husband, the writer Adam McCulloch.
Follow Emma on Instagram.
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This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Creative Writing Stage 1.
Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).
