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Cop this Lot
Stories of not belonging in a classless society.
Class intersects with almost every aspect of our lives, from where we go to school, to what we wear and eat, to how we speak, and how we make a living. Yet we almost never talk about it, and when we do, it’s often to make claims about how much Australia loves its ‘battlers’ and blue-collar underdogs. But what’s it really like to be economically disadvantaged in this country? To be denied a place in a rapidly expanding ‘middle class’ as the gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ widens? And is it possible to cross class lines in a country that barely acknowledges those lines exist?
In Cop This Lot, diverse voices of all ages — from the well-known to the recently discovered — deliver their stories and experiences with verve, courage, and humour. Collectively, these essays challenge Australia’s myths and truths about its national character and delve deeply into the nation’s complex relationship with social class.
With contributions from: Roger Averill, Timmah Ball, Shannon Burns, Luke Carman, Felicity Castagna, Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn, Chris Fleming, Rick Morton, Amra Pajalic, Sheila Ngoc Pham, Peter Polites, Alice Pung, Matthew Sini, and David Sornig.
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Things Nobody Knows But Me
‘Brave, compassionate, searingly honest and funny, this is a memoir in a voice like no other. Amra Pajalić’s love letter to her mother is a book that grabs at your heart and doesn’t let go until the final page.’ ALICE PUNG
When she is four years old Amra Pajalić realises that her mother is different. Fatima is loving but sometimes hears strange voices that tell her to do bizarre things. She is frequently sent to hospital and Amra and her brother are passed around to family friends and foster homes, and for a time live with their grandparents in Bosnia.
At sixteen Amra ends up in the school counsellor’s office for wagging school. She finally learns the name for the malady that has dogged her mother and affected her own life: bipolar disorder. Amra becomes her mother’s confidante and learns the extraordinary story of her life: when she was fifteen years old Fatima visited family friends only to find herself in an arranged marriage. At sixteen she was a migrant, a mother, and mental patient.
Surprisingly funny, Things Nobody Knows But Me is a tender portrait of family and migration, beautifully told. It captures a wonderful sense of bicultural place and life as it weaves between St Albans in suburban Australia and Bosanska Gradiška in Bosnia. Ultimately it is the heartrending story of a mother and daughter bond fractured and forged by illness and experience. Fatima emerges as a remarkable but wounded woman who learns that her daughter really loves her.
Things Nobody Knows But Me was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award.
Read more about it here.
Buy a copy:
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Readings books
When she is four years old Amra Pajalić realises that her mother is different. Fatima is loving but sometimes hears strange voices that tell her to do bizarre things. She is frequently sent to hospital and Amra and her brother are passed around to family friends and foster homes, and for a time live with their grandparents in Bosnia.
At sixteen Amra ends up in the school counsellor’s office for wagging school. She finally learns the name for the malady that has dogged her mother and affected her own life: bipolar disorder. Amra becomes her mother’s confidante and learns the extraordinary story of her life: when she was fifteen years old Fatima visited family friends only to find herself in an arranged marriage. At sixteen she was a migrant, a mother, and mental patient.
Surprisingly funny, Things Nobody Knows But Me is a tender portrait of family and migration, beautifully told. It captures a wonderful sense of bicultural place and life as it weaves between St Albans in suburban Australia and Bosanska Gradiška in Bosnia. Ultimately it is the heartrending story of a mother and daughter bond fractured and forged by illness and experience. Fatima emerges as a remarkable but wounded woman who learns that her daughter really loves her.
Things Nobody Knows But Me was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award.
Read more about it here.
Buy a copy:
Booktopia
Amazon Paperback
Readings books
Add Things Nobody Knows But Me to your Goodreads list
Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia
Growing Up Muslim in Australia, is an anthology featuring twelve Muslim writers to be published by Allen and Unwin. Co-edited with Demet Divaroren it features honest and heartfelt stories by Australian Muslim writers about culture, identity and growing up Muslim in multicultural Australia.
Shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books.
Read more about it here.
Download teaching notes that I wrote from Allen and Unwin website here
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Shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books.
Read more about it here.
Download teaching notes that I wrote from Allen and Unwin website here
Buy a copy:
Booktopia
Readings bookstore
Amazon Kindle
Amazon paperback
Meet Me at the Intersection
I am contributor in the anthology Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Rebecca Lim. Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.
With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.
Read more about it here.
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With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.
Read more about it here.
To buy a copy:
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Rebellious Daughters
I am contributor in Rebellious Daughters is an anthology edited by Maria Katsonis and Lee Kofman and is published by Ventura Press, 2016.
Rebellious Daughters contributors: Jane Caro, Jamila Rizvi, Susan Wyndham, Rebecca Starford, Marion Halligan, Amra Pajalic, Jo Case, Leah Kaminsky, Michelle Law, Caroline Baum, Rochelle Siemienowicz, Nicola Redhouse, Krissy Kneen, Silvia Kwon and Eliza-Jane Henry-Jones.
Read more about it here.
To buy a copy:
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Rebellious Daughters contributors: Jane Caro, Jamila Rizvi, Susan Wyndham, Rebecca Starford, Marion Halligan, Amra Pajalic, Jo Case, Leah Kaminsky, Michelle Law, Caroline Baum, Rochelle Siemienowicz, Nicola Redhouse, Krissy Kneen, Silvia Kwon and Eliza-Jane Henry-Jones.
Read more about it here.
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Amir: Friend on Loan
My novel for children Amir: Friend on Loan is about two friends living in Australia and how their parent's Bosnian and Serbian ancestry affects their friendship.
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Cengage Publishing
Buy teaching resources from here.
Buy a copy
Booktopia
Readings Bookstore
Cengage Publishing
Buy teaching resources from here.
The Good Daughter
I am the author of an award winning young adult novel The Good Daughter about a fifteen-year-old Bosnian girl and her relationship with her Bi Polar mother.
The Good Daughter won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Civic Choice Award. It was also a finalist in the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award and was shortlisted in the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Awards for Best Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Writer. The Good Daughter is published by Text Publishing.
Published by Text Publishing.
Read more about it here.
Download teaching notes from Text Publishing website here.
Buy a copy:
Booktopia
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Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback
The Good Daughter won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Civic Choice Award. It was also a finalist in the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award and was shortlisted in the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Awards for Best Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Writer. The Good Daughter is published by Text Publishing.
Published by Text Publishing.
Read more about it here.
Download teaching notes from Text Publishing website here.
Buy a copy:
Booktopia
Readings bookstore
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback
What a Muslim Woman Looks Like
What a Muslim Woman Looks Like is a government funded educational publication profiling twelve Muslim women.
For more about the book go here.
Download teaching notes from my Teacher resources page
For more about the book go here.
Download teaching notes from my Teacher resources page