We’re failing this continent. We have been for some time. The lastest State of the Environment Report only confirms what we’ve all known for years. In Northern NSW, west of the Divide, it used to be brigalow scrub, growing on what turned out to be the richest soil in the country - not a coincidence as it happens - but it’s almost all gone, and the job of protecting what’s left falls to environmental officers. Late one afternoon in 2014, out near Croppa Creek, things come to a head. An 80 year old farmer, Ian Turnbull, takes out a gun and shoots Glen Turner, an environmental officer, in the back. He stands over the wounded man until he’s dead, despite the pleas of his companion.

This is the point at which Kate Holden starts her remarkable book The Winter Road. But don’t be confused. Holden's not interested in writing a true crime story. She wants to understand the forces at play here: the way we view land, who owns it, what it’s for, what our responsibility to it entails. And to comprehend those things she discovers she needs to delve into our philosophical and cultural roots, to drill down into many of our assumptions. She says she’s not a journalist, but the book won a Walkley Award. She says she’s not a historian, but the book won the NSW Premiers non-fiction award this year and is short-listed for the regional history award. This is an important book, written by one of our finest writers. Kate will be speaking to Steven Lang for Outspoken on September 15. Don’t miss it.

‘A gripping account of our land and ourselves,’ Tara June Winch

I was born in Melbourne in 1972 and, apart from some time in Rome, Shanghai and London, I have always lived here. I went to progressive community schools and the University of Melbourne, where I got an Honours degree in literature and classics. I had jobs as a dish-pig in a café in a patisserie, as a hair model and in a bookshop before turning to an unexpected career in heroin addiction and, a little later, as a professional sex worker.

As our opening author, we are delighted to once again speak to Katie McMahon.

Katie’s first novel, The Mistake, was exceedingly well-received, with cover notes by such luminaries as Liane Moriarty - I absolutely loved this novel… fresh, funny and heartfelt… I didn’t want it to end. Now she returns with The Accident, revealing the inner lives of Grace, Zoe and Imogen, whose worlds are linked through shared but not always obvious connections. The Accident explores the ways in which our formative years shape our future, examining the influence of unrequited love and the healing power of friendship.