The author Ellen Van Neerven describes their poetry collection Throat as ‘a fierce cry: a collection of poems about whiteness, climate change, extinctions; about types of shame lodged squarely in the throat; about culpability and protection.’

While briefing me, the publisher passed on this note from Ellen regarding the cover: ‘... interestingly I’ve been thinking of an image of a face on the cover. Never thought I’d go there but... Just how relevant it might be to have a representation of a queer First Nations person. So even happy for it to be a representation of my face!?! if necessary.’

Don't worry about the housing bubble, she would say. Don't worry about the fact that you will never be able to afford a home. Worry about the day after. That's when they will all come, with their black shirts and bayonets, and then you will see the drowned bodies and slit necks. And I would stand there and say, But Mum, I'm ten years old.

A dark satire and second generation immigrant story set in outer suburban Sydney, during that city's insane housing boom. The Pillars follows the wild life of protagonist Panos, a struggling writer awash in a toxic world of aspiration, consumerism, methamphetamine and other moral gray areas. The writing is at times uncompromising and brutal – a withering portrayal of modern Australia.