MAURILIA MEEHAN's fifth novel, THE BAD SEED, published to critical acclaim, is available in Australia from www.fishpond.com.au and from other online bookstores such as www.amazon.com

Excerpts from her earlier work appear in  MESSENGERS OF EROS, by Xavier Pons, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

Maurilia Meehan lives in a country town in south-eastern Australia, where she feeds red rosellas in the mornings and chases away huge white cockatoos at dusk.

She is the award-winning author of five novels and many short stories, and her work has been translated into French and German.

Over the last twenty years, her shorter works have appeared in:

La Nouvelle Revue Francaise, Australian Short Stories, Island, Imago, Mattoid, Hecate, Angels of Power, Famous Reporter, Redoubt, Westerly, Women/Love/Sex,Fictions 88, The Art of the Story, Brave New Word, She's Fantastical, Poems from Today's Australians, Made in Australia, Lennie Lower Anthology, Webber's, Southerly, The Age, dotlit, Australian Book Review and others.

Her next work will appear in the March 2010 edition of Meanjin.

Her first novel, PERFORMANCES, was published by Women's Redress Press, Australia, a now (unfortunately) defunct co-operative. An earlier manuscript version was shortlisted for the AUSTRALIAN VOGEL AWARD.

Then Penguin Australia published FURY, about Olympe de Gouges, an activist guillotined during the French Revolution for her surprisingly modern views on everything from the monarchy to sexual liberation. FURY was translated into German as FURIE HINTER DEN SPIEGELN (Argument Verlag). It was shortlisted for the prestigious MILES FRANKLIN AWARD.

THE SEA PEOPLE (also Penguin) explores an ill-fated first settlement in Sorrento, Australia, where one of Maurilia's ancestors arrived in a convict ship. (He was transported for stealing a sheep). As in FURY, the narrative travels back and forth in time to tell its story. THE SEA PEOPLE was shortlisted for the LOUIS BRAILLE TALKING BOOKS AWARD.

ADULTERY, AN ENTERTAINMENT, also published by Penguin, is one of the MOST STOLEN BOOKS from libraries---a great honour bestowed on it by passionate readers.

With film-maker Franco di Chiera, ADULTERY has been made into a screenplay, with the assistance of Film Victoria.

And now THE BAD SEED, a subtly sinister story, told with humour and grace, is published with Bewrite Books, a welcome sojourn with Maurilia's small press origins. However, the world of publishing has changed since the days of her first novel, and the reader can order THE BAD SEED directly from online bookstores such as www.fishpond.com.au and from the UK based publisher at www.bewrite.net

THE SEA PEOPLE, and her other earlier works are, likewise, best found online.

And currently?

KNITTING WITH MISS MARPLE is  the first in a playfully literary /noir humour trilogy.

The second  will be called WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ELIZABETH COSTELLO?

The third will be THE ATLANTIS ESTATE.

She is also putting together a volume of over thirty published short stories (and some new ones), including the winner of the FAW STATE OF VICTORIA SHORT STORY AWARD. The collection will include a literary/ noir humour novella, centring on reproductive technologies, called THE ARTISANS.

 OTHER LINKS: ABC INTERVIEW about THE BAD SEED

www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2006/1809525.htm

THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION

www.austlit.edu.au/about

A site for exploring MM and Australian writing in general

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1312295

About MM's story published in LA NOUVELLE REVUE FRANCAISE, 2005

THE GERMAN CONNECTION

http://www.feministische-sf.de/einzelne_romane/fsf_furie-hinter-den-spiegeln.html

About the German version of FURY