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Emily Brewin is an award-winning Melbourne author and teacher. Her first novel, Hello, Goodbye, was published in 2017 and her second, Small Blessings, in 2019. A Way Home (2024) is her first young adult novel. Emily is passionate about using fiction to support young people to understand and connect more deeply with the world around them. She uses storytelling to explore social issues in an accessible and engaging way. With a background in journalism, Emily uses research and lived experience interviews to inform her novels and her writing presentations. Emily’s short stories have appeared in many anthologies, and she has written for The Age, ABC Education, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF), news.com.au, The Victorian Writer, Screen Education, and Mamamia.
AWARDS: Currently shortlisted for the 2024 Readings Young Adult PrizeLonglisted for the Queensland Writers Centre, Adaptable Program Awarded for the Australian Society of Authors Mentorship for Writers and Illustrators Awarded for the Gooluwatu Writing Retreat Awarded for the Moreland Writer in Residence Awarded for the Bundanon Trust artist residency program
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Books by Emily Brewin
A Way Home
Best Suited 13+ Years
Sixteen-year-old Grace lives under a bridge in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s cold and wet, but hidden. Safe, at least, until she can go home.
When winter drives her to the City Library one morning, Grace meets Louie, a weird kid with his own problems, and discovers a community piano. The piano reminds Grace of her mum, a celebrated pianist whose mental illness makes life a rollercoaster – and not always a fun one.
When Grace comes up with a plan to find the help she and Mum need, life begins to look up. But things don’t work out as Grace imagines and suddenly her world’s turned upside down again, and maybe for good this time.
A Way Home is a big-hearted novel that explores the complexities of growing up with a parent who is struggling, and about the places and people we call home.
Hello, Goodbye
Best Suited: Adult
It’s 1968 and free-thinking country girl May Callaghan’s world is turned upside down when she finds out she’s pregnant to her boyfriend Sam, who is awaiting draft orders. A profoundly moving story of love during a time of great social change, with an ending that will leave you cheering.
Small Blessings
Best Suited: Adult
Rosie Larson doesn’t trust people – and with good reason. Her violent ex-boyfriend, Joel, is out of jail and she’s determined he won’t find her or their eleven-year-old son.
For Isobel Hutchins, the cost of success is beginning to prove too high. Her impressive career and comfortable lifestyle can’t protect her from the news her mother is dying or the need to face her past.
When tragedy strikes, Rosie and Isobel are thrown together despite their differences. In this difficult space, they draw strength from each other and form an unlikely friendship that may just see them through.
Small Blessings is a poignant and uplifting tale of secrets, motherhood, innocence and heartache, and ultimately what we’re willing to do for love