Geordie Williamson

This manuscript came to me and I was so sad not to be able to publish it, but I'm so thrilled that Scribe has.

It's called The Endling.

This is quite hard to explain in short term, but I'll try and do this.

Basically, Keeley grew up on a feminist separatist commune on the north coast of New South Wales.

And I think her experience of that interesting childhood has informed this novel, which is about a small feminist community that

which basically is going through a tough time after initially being quite strong.

And there's an older woman who lives quite separately to the other women named Aunt Frank, who lives only with her dog, Chicken Midnight.

And near her is an orchid who gets its own kind of presence in the text, an orchid endling.

And an orchid endling, it means this is the last of its species and it's slowly dying.

At this point, women in the community start becoming mysteriously pregnant, which is tricky in one that's obviously sexually segregated.

And when one of the women actually gives birth to a boy, the whole commune just explodes.

Wow.

Keely is a really, really talented, deeply imaginative writer.

I just think it is just crazy enough.

Hopefully people will pick it up and realise that we've got a real talent on our hands.

So I recommend it to you all.

The Endling.

By Keely Jobe.

Great.

You've been listening to an ABC podcast.