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Guide to pronouncing my surname: Pa-ya-lich
Spending her adolescence reading young adult novels that featured characters who were nothing like her, Amra Pajalić yearned to read about characters who shared her struggle in mediating their community’s cultural expectations. This led to her writing her debut novel The Good Daughter, the book that she wished she’d been able to read.
After numerous submissions, Amra Pajalić almost gave up hope that her book would find an audience, when her novel was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Writer and, in short succession she gained an agent, and two offers from publishers for her debut novel.
Amra Pajalić won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and was selected by the Grattan Institute for the 2015 Summer Reading List for Prime Minister. Her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. Her short story collection The Cuckoo's Song (Pishukin Press, 2022) features previously published and prize-winning stories.
Amra draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture.
Amra lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband of twenty-seven years and her daughter. She is a high school English teacher working at her former high school, teaching students who like her, are from a Non-English Speaking Background.
Amra has a serious tea addiction and, while she writes, she rotates between the dozens of loose leaf tea flavours that she has in her pantry. She always loves to hear from readers. Amra also writes romance as Mae Archer.
After numerous submissions, Amra Pajalić almost gave up hope that her book would find an audience, when her novel was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Writer and, in short succession she gained an agent, and two offers from publishers for her debut novel.
Amra Pajalić won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and was selected by the Grattan Institute for the 2015 Summer Reading List for Prime Minister. Her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. Her short story collection The Cuckoo's Song (Pishukin Press, 2022) features previously published and prize-winning stories.
Amra draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture.
Amra lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband of twenty-seven years and her daughter. She is a high school English teacher working at her former high school, teaching students who like her, are from a Non-English Speaking Background.
Amra has a serious tea addiction and, while she writes, she rotates between the dozens of loose leaf tea flavours that she has in her pantry. She always loves to hear from readers. Amra also writes romance as Mae Archer.
Short biography
Amra Pajalić is an award-winning author, an editor and teacher who draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for young people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture.
Amra Pajalić won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of the year awards and her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. Her short story collection The Cuckoo's Song (Pishukin Press) features previously published and prize-winning stories.
Amra Pajalić won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of the year awards and her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. Her short story collection The Cuckoo's Song (Pishukin Press) features previously published and prize-winning stories.
Mae Archer biography
Mae Archer knew she wanted to be a writer since she was a child. She loved listening to her grandmother's war stories about English maidens falling in love with handsome Yankees while England burnt under the Luftwaffe's blitz. When she discovered romance novels as a teenager, she soon realised that her dream job was to be a romance writer.
After many career twists and turns, she's making her dreams come true. Mae's real life is like one of her grandmother's stories. She met a foreigner who travelled through Australia, and it was love at first sight. They married six months after they met and every day since has been an adventure. She lives in Australia with her husband and daughter.
Mae has been an avid reader of romance novels since she was a teenager and her own novels combine some of her favourite romance tropes including time travel, second chances and secret identities. Mae Archer is the pen name for author Amra Pajalic. Amra writes young adult contemporary fiction under her own name and dark fiction as A.P. Pajalic.
After many career twists and turns, she's making her dreams come true. Mae's real life is like one of her grandmother's stories. She met a foreigner who travelled through Australia, and it was love at first sight. They married six months after they met and every day since has been an adventure. She lives in Australia with her husband and daughter.
Mae has been an avid reader of romance novels since she was a teenager and her own novels combine some of her favourite romance tropes including time travel, second chances and secret identities. Mae Archer is the pen name for author Amra Pajalic. Amra writes young adult contemporary fiction under her own name and dark fiction as A.P. Pajalic.
Even more about Amra
Amra Pajalić, is the owner and publisher of Pishukin Press, an independent press that publishes underrepresented authors in fiction and nonfiction. Drawing on her experience as an award-winning author, an editor and educator, Pishukin Press is dedicated to accessibility and titles are published in ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, large print, dyslexic font and audiobooks narrated by artificial intelligence and performance narrators.
Pishukin Press received $20K Export Market Development Grant, and was successful in securing a grant from Business Victoria
Pishukin Press books are distributed by IngramSpark and published on all major platforms: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Google Books.
Purchase links to online retailers are available on the individual book pages. Amra also sells direct via her shop.
To ask your library or local bookstore to stock Amra’s paperbacks, just print out Pishukin Press Catalogue Distribution Channels and take the list of ISBNs with you. The assistant can use it to order from their supplier’s catalogue.
View media pack on Press Kit page.
Bosnian-language speakers can read about Amra on her page Za Bosance.
Amra works as a high school teacher and teaches across four subject areas: English, English as an Additional Language, Humanities and Creative Writing. If you are an educator check out her Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
Amra Pajalić has written teaching notes for Growing up Muslim in Australia, Meet Me at the Intersection and memoir Muddy People by Sara El Sayed.
Amra has published non-fiction including opinion and analysis, reviews and memoir pieces, in ABC Education, ArtsHub, Kalliope Journal, The Guardian, The Age, Southerly Journal, Overland Journal, AEU Magazines, Meanjin and 25 memoir pieces in SBS Voices. Her short stories have been published in journals, anthologies and magazines. Read her work on her articles page.
View Amra's News and Events.
Amra has been successful in receiving creative development, residency and business grants to develop her author business. She has now partnered with www.BoldAuthors.com to deliver an online grant writing course that includes a step by step guide, a successful funding application and a list of grants in Australia. View here.
Amra is a mentor, delivers workshops and talks. Go to her Book Me page for testimonials, rates and how to book her.
Subscribe to her newsletter and hear her news first-Amra's Pishukin Press Post.
Amra is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University.
You can buy signed copies of Amra's books from her Shop.
Amra loves hearing from her readers via her Contact page.
If you are a young writer seeking advice go to her Aspiring Writers page.
Amra also writes romance novels under pen name Mae Archer.
Pishukin Press received $20K Export Market Development Grant, and was successful in securing a grant from Business Victoria
Pishukin Press books are distributed by IngramSpark and published on all major platforms: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Google Books.
Purchase links to online retailers are available on the individual book pages. Amra also sells direct via her shop.
To ask your library or local bookstore to stock Amra’s paperbacks, just print out Pishukin Press Catalogue Distribution Channels and take the list of ISBNs with you. The assistant can use it to order from their supplier’s catalogue.
View media pack on Press Kit page.
Bosnian-language speakers can read about Amra on her page Za Bosance.
Amra works as a high school teacher and teaches across four subject areas: English, English as an Additional Language, Humanities and Creative Writing. If you are an educator check out her Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
Amra Pajalić has written teaching notes for Growing up Muslim in Australia, Meet Me at the Intersection and memoir Muddy People by Sara El Sayed.
Amra has published non-fiction including opinion and analysis, reviews and memoir pieces, in ABC Education, ArtsHub, Kalliope Journal, The Guardian, The Age, Southerly Journal, Overland Journal, AEU Magazines, Meanjin and 25 memoir pieces in SBS Voices. Her short stories have been published in journals, anthologies and magazines. Read her work on her articles page.
View Amra's News and Events.
Amra has been successful in receiving creative development, residency and business grants to develop her author business. She has now partnered with www.BoldAuthors.com to deliver an online grant writing course that includes a step by step guide, a successful funding application and a list of grants in Australia. View here.
Amra is a mentor, delivers workshops and talks. Go to her Book Me page for testimonials, rates and how to book her.
Subscribe to her newsletter and hear her news first-Amra's Pishukin Press Post.
Amra is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University.
You can buy signed copies of Amra's books from her Shop.
Amra loves hearing from her readers via her Contact page.
If you are a young writer seeking advice go to her Aspiring Writers page.
Amra also writes romance novels under pen name Mae Archer.
Find Amra Online
https://www.instagram.com/amrapajalicauthor/
https://twitter.com/AmraPajalic
https://www.tiktok.com/@amrapajalic
https://www.facebook.com/AmraPajalicAuthor/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amra-pajalic
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3310015.Amra_Pajalic
https://www.amazon.com/author/amrapajalic
Mae Archer accounts
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mae-archer
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7201208.Mae_Archer
https://twitter.com/AmraPajalic
https://www.tiktok.com/@amrapajalic
https://www.facebook.com/AmraPajalicAuthor/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amra-pajalic
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3310015.Amra_Pajalic
https://www.amazon.com/author/amrapajalic
Mae Archer accounts
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mae-archer
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7201208.Mae_Archer
Subscribe to Amra's author newsletter and receive a free gift of Sabiha's Dilemma ebook
Introducing Amra Pajalić
Q&A
What themes do you deal with in your short story collection The Cuckoo's Song?
My short story collections deal with themes that represent who I am. As I was parented by a mother who was a Bipolar sufferer I find myself coming back to themes that deal with mental health, especially within the context of Non-English Speaking communities as this places particular pressure on a sufferer and family due to stigma and lack of awareness.
Growing up I did not see myself represented in fiction and I write own voices stories exploring my Bosnian heritage and culture so that young people who have an ethnic cultural background feel validated in seeing their lives represented in fiction.
I love reading stories that explore the real life effects of being in a war and providing a slice of history. As a writer I love the process of immersing myself in real life research to write stories set during the Balkan War of 1992-1995, when Bosnia became an independent country.
Growing up raised by a single mother for most of my childhood, and then becoming a nuclear family when my mother married my stepfather, I am fascinated by the notions of family ties and family loyalty. I am also an advocate of LGBTQI rights and write characters who are part of this community.
Growing up I did not see myself represented in fiction and I write own voices stories exploring my Bosnian heritage and culture so that young people who have an ethnic cultural background feel validated in seeing their lives represented in fiction.
I love reading stories that explore the real life effects of being in a war and providing a slice of history. As a writer I love the process of immersing myself in real life research to write stories set during the Balkan War of 1992-1995, when Bosnia became an independent country.
Growing up raised by a single mother for most of my childhood, and then becoming a nuclear family when my mother married my stepfather, I am fascinated by the notions of family ties and family loyalty. I am also an advocate of LGBTQI rights and write characters who are part of this community.
Who is your ideal reader for The Cuckoo's Song?
My ideal reader is someone who loves reading about young adult characters because the themes of coming of age appeal to them. Readers who want to immerse themselves in realistic fiction that will take them on an emotional journey and give them a cathartic cry. Readers who enjoy reading own voices characters and learning about other cultures. And readers who are writers themselves, and want to learn about the craft of writing, as well as how to develop book chapters as stand-alone stories in order to find an an audience.
Why did you write your memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me?
I wrote my memoir to share the story of what it's like for people from Non-English speaking background to suffer a mental illness. My mother came to Australia as a fifteen year old, at sixteen she was a mother and a mental patient. She suffered her breakdown after giving birth to my sister and, from then on she was a lifelong Bipolar sufferer, but she didn't know the name of her illness. She had learnt to call her illness nervous breakdowns and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for her breakdowns. It was only when I was in high school that a counsellor gave me a sheet with my mother's symptoms that I learnt the name of her illness and that we as a family could take control.
How would you describe your writing?
Like most writing I am exploring facets of humanity that I am interested in. I am writing stories about what it's like to be Bosnian, to be from the Western suburbs, and experiences of having a family member who suffers from a mental illness.
Isn't your debut novel The Good Daughter the same as your memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me?
My debut novel The Good Daughter was my first attempt to explore my story in the safe form of fiction where I could disguise myself and my mother. I thought I was done with writing my story about growing up with a parent who suffers a mental illness, but after giving birth to my daughter and suffering post-natal depression I found that I had to return to the memoir format. I wanted to honour my mother's story and the hardships she experienced and explore the reality of what my childhood was like.