Not Quite White in the Head by Melissa Lucashenko

Miles Franklin-award winner Melissa Lucashenko’s searing essays and journalism published together for the first time.

‘For thousands of years, global narratives have had, as their explicit task, the expansion of the human heart.’

Melissa Lucashenko is one of our most admired and awarded novelists. She is renowned for writing about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead.

This timely collection of essays and journalism – published together for the first time – spans two turbulent decades. With her trademark wit and wisdom, Lucashenko reflects on being caught in a siege, on the marginalised lives of prisoners and the urban poor, on Blak identity, Australian literature and on meeting her writing idol. Her non-fiction, like her novels, is deeply engaged with politics, activism, culture and social (in)justice.

Not Quite White in the Head offers unprecedented access to one of the nation’s greatest writers as she invites us into the conversations that truly matter.

About the Author: Melissa Lucashenko is a Goorie (Aboriginal) author of Bundjalung and European heritage. Her first novel was published in 1997 and since then her work has received acclaim in many literary awards. Her novel Too Much Lip won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance. Her most recent novel, Edenglassie, won eight major awards, including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Indie Book Award for Fiction, the ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award. Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, and a founding member of human rights organisation Sisters Inside.

04 Nov 2025
 

Not Quite White in the Head by Melissa Lucashenko ISBN 9780702271144