Featuring: Living in London, a fierce love of Australia, juggling work and family, bringing unspoken things into the light, strong headstrong women, on Nikki's book After and her mother’s suicide, the importance of cherishing loved ones, memories of getting published, the women in publishing who lifted Nikki up, getting outed as the writer of The Bride Stripped Bare, the pleasures of editing, and the writers who excite Nikki today.
Nikki Gemmell is one of Australia’s great writers. Since Les Murray printed Nikki’s first short story in Quadrant Magazine, she’s written thirteen novels. One of them, was the erotic blockbuster The Bride Stripped Bare which was published anonymously back in 2003. It was described as a ‘raw and unflinching’ look at sexuality – and it’s that raw and unflinching eye that makes her writing as a whole so engaging. Nikki’s books have been translated into 22 languages and in France, she's been described as a ‘female Jack Kerouac’. Nikki also writes books for children, is a columnist for the Weekend Australian Magazine and she’s published various non-fiction books, musing about life, love and death. In all of her work there’s a sort of sinewy energy that bristles on the page, and her fine observations and sensual descriptions are a joy to read in all of their guises. Her book After has the feel of a literary detective story as Nikki investigates her mother’s death, though at the heart, it’s a celebration of her life and their relationship in all of its wondrous complexity. Her new novel that’s just come out is called The Ripping Tree. It’s a poetic thriller that’s vividly imagined and confronting – a particularly Australian story, set in the time of white settlement.
You can find Nikki’s books at all good bookshops, and here's a Sydney-based one for starters: Kinokuniya Books https://australia.kinokuniya.com/productsis_searching=true&restrictBy%5Bauthor%5D=Gemmell+Nikki&taxon=2