Paradise Earth Official Launch
Gold Medal Winner 2020 IPPY Awards
for Best Regional Fiction
Finalist 2020 International Book Awards
– Literary Fiction
Following last year’s Black Summer fires—which devastated Kangaroo Island-based Publisher, Stormbird Press—a soft release of Paradise Earth went ahead, to meet existing commitments to international book awards. This proved to be the right decision as Paradise Earth won Gold in the Australia/NZ/Pacific Rim Best Regional fiction category in the 2020 Independent Publisher Awards and was honoured as a finalist in the literary fiction category of the 2020 International Book Awards.
To mark this year’s 25th anniversary of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre—the focus of Paradise Earth—today’s official launch sees the novel made widely available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats.
On this significant anniversary, Paradise Earth, ‘an honest and unflinching guide to this most terrible of Australia’s hauntings…a novel of blazing and humbling integrity’, is a frontlist title from Stormbird Press, who publish works that convey Truth while empowering passionate readers and writers to stay in the long game.
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Omega Park
Winner 2008 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Best Emerging Author
Shortlisted 2010 FAW Christina Stead Award
Winner 2012 IBBY Australia Ena Noël Award
A confronting tale of heartbreak and redemption.
Omega Park is a housing commission estate on the fringes of Queensland’s Gold Coast. Dingo Patterson and Jacob Box are growing up and trying to survive.
Surrounded by broken families, crime and desperation, they are young men with dreams of a different life. When a car chase ends in tragedy for one of the boys, relations with police and within the community reach crisis point.
‘Omega Park is an engaging read and exerts a considerable narrative grip. This tour through the dark underside of the Gold Coast is eye-opening and ultimately satisfying.’ Australian Literature Review
‘Omega Park is a powerful first novel.’ Bookseller + Publisher
‘Amy Barker has written a gently fierce story that is one of the best novels of this year.’ Courier Mail
‘The strength of Barker’s debut resides in her unflinching descriptions of Omega Park and her evident yet clear-eyed sympathy for those trapped within its confines.’ Weekend Australian
‘This is not the Gold Coast of the tourism ads and postcards, but is a representation of the cold reality of every modern city.’ Gold Coast Bulletin
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Amy Barker 