Very happy to share that my Young Adult verse novel – Flying Hearts – will be published by Bakers Lane in June 2027! It’s great to find a publisher that shares my enthusiasm for the story and characters.
I’ve carried the characters in this story with me for a long time; I’ve imagined them near me on trains, sitting in classrooms, waiting out the front of shops. It’s like they’ve been with me searching for their story. I finally found that story a few years ago when I started noticing a repeated piece of graffiti around the suburbs of Sydney, a single heart with three motion streaks; sometimes on walls, on bins, on traffic lights, in places you would never expect. The more I thought about the flying hearts, the more they seemed to appear. Then my characters started to gather around them, like this tiny sign was what they had been waiting for, the thing that could join them together in a story.
Flying Hearts comes from the experience of working with teenagers for many years, listening to the way young people try to make meaning in the world they’ve been cast into. I’ve always felt the fragmentary style of verse novels is the most immediate way to capture and share the moments of quick, almost magical revelation that teenagers experience as they discover the way they will exist in the world. I did a lot of work thinking about locations across Sydney that resonated with me, often for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate – they became many of the locations in the poems; odd buildings, laneways, deserted streets, a footbridge over train tracks, empty stations, they all found a place.
The book celebrates the indelible nature of teen friendship and love, sharing the story of four teenagers – Telly, Karr, Ahmad and Jessica – as they explore the parks, trains and streets of western Sydney. In a world where the threat of toxic masculinity looms and graffiti tags contain hidden messages, the four build trust as they struggle through the inequities of class, the uncertainty of familial connection, and their own search for meaning. This story reshapes the verse novel form, weaving together individual poems in a way that captures the startling epiphanies of youth.
More info about the publication is here also drop into the Bakers Lane site to see their other book, so great to see a new publisher on the Australian scene!
Rico Craig 