WestWords Books is WestWords’ adult trade imprint.
Our catalogue of fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry, strives to showcase excellence in writing. These works seek to impact culture through vital and unique voices.
These books take risks. These books make a difference.
Visit here for updates on our 2025 and 2026 releases.
Barefoot Poetess
Available for Pre-order. Publication date: April 1st 2025.
Barefoot Poetess by Paris Rosemont. The follow up collection to her highly acclaimed debut Banana Girl is about journeys: through love, disenchantment, and change.
With her second poetry collection, Barefoot Poetess takes readers on an intimate journey through Rosemont’s metamorphosis – from the disillusionment of fractured relationships, complexities of culture and identity, the ridiculousness of the current zeitgeist, through to – at the very heart of things, love. This collection ripples with an undercurrent of violence. Yet there is also a softness to it—a sense of hope amidst the jagged edges.
Besides reclaiming the word ‘Poetess’ as an act of rebellion, Paris Rosemont has also reclaimed a woman’s fierce allegiance to her body, sexuality, her selfhood. Throughout this book she reclaims the language of love and her love of language.
Dorianne Laux, Finalist: 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
In this sweeping memoir, Margaret Hamilton shares the story of her life and times. A child of the post-war years, Margaret was at the forefront of Australian publishing as it strove to shake off the dominance of British and American publishers and became an independent force.
Spanning over half a century of publishing change and growth, Margaret Hamilton’s memoir is a vital history of late 20th-century and early 21st-century Australian publishing, as well as a record of a vital player in that history.
Paris Rosemont’s debut collection, Banana Girl, traverses topics that are at once deeply personal, yet universal – explorations of love, loss and heartbreak, lust, sex and violence, the complexity of shifting power dynamics, peppered with a smattering of social commentary.
*Shortlisted for the 2024 Mary Gilmore Award*
“I hope these poems will speak, sing and howl to you, in the way that they speak, sing and howl to me,” – ali whitelock
Reclink footy has saved people’s lives … and this is a book about Reclink footy.
“Full of stories of redemption, hope, pushing doors open for people and bringing out the very finest qualities in our communities. Put them together and they are a force for good. I see in them the very best of us. As you read the stories in this book, I’m confident you’ll see the same,” – The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia
More fiction, poetry and non-fiction titles are coming from March 2025.
Authors
Paris Rosemont
Award-winning, internationally published poet with a passion for the arts. Paris combines her literary and theatrical penchants into the multi-sensory exploration of the art of performance poetry. She is a WestWords Academy Alumni, WestWords-Varuna recipient, and WestWords fellow. Visit her website.
“Paris Rosemont’s poetry has been described as ‘marked by originality of voice, integrity of feeling, sass, sensuality, depth of thought, rebellion, and tenderness,” – Mark Tredinnick (OAM)
Vahida Berberovic
Vahida Berberovic is a storyteller who teaches English and Communications at UTS Sydney. She is a refugee from Bosnia, and her writing investigates big themes in the small detail of the lives of people like herself. She has written two novels, two novellas and several short stories. She has been awarded an international writing residency at the Vermont Studio Center and a writing residency at the Varuna Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains.
Her fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines, most recently in The Writers’ Journal, Cape magazine, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Down in the Dirt, Quail Bell and Ariel Chart. Her re-imagining of the tale of Snow White is featured in the anthology Women of Myth.
In 2024, Vahida won the inaugural WestWords Prize with her winning manuscript, Piggy Tails, selected for publication by WestWords Books. Read more about Vahida, and the WestWords prize, here.
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was active in many aspects of children’s literature, as librarian, editor, reviewer, bookseller and publisher. In 1987 she represented Australian publishers in the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) cultural delegation to China. The following year she established a publishing house for children’s books, Margaret Hamilton Books. A long-serving member of the CBCA, she was National President, convened the first National Conference, and established the Awards Foundation to help raise money for the Book of the Year Awards.
Hamilton was also involved in the successful campaign to preserve Nutcote, May Gibbs’ cottage. Her collection of original artwork from picture books, as well as a large library, is displayed in Pinerolo, the Children’s Book Cottage in Blackheath, the Blue Mountains.
