Local writer, Jen Severn, has a new book out in March – a novel called Garnet about a small country town peopled with eccentric, lovable, difficult, ordinary and extraordinary characters – and a few evil developers for good measure. This short novel (an early manuscript was shortlisted in the Viva La Novella Prize in 2022) packs the emotional punch of a much larger book. It is quiet but intricate – a series of interlocking stories and characters that, woven together, create a vivid portrait of small-town life.

Those who have read Jen’s previous book, a memoir called Long Road to Dry River, will be familiar with her observational acuity and clean, poetic writing style. When asked about the change from non-fiction to fiction, Jen says, ‘I’ve really enjoyed the freedom of writing fiction. I loved it that sometimes I thought I knew where a story was going, and then a character would say something or do something totally unexpected, and I’d think, wow, take it away!’

As I read the novel, I wondered what it was about a small town that provides such a fertile setting for fiction. ‘I moved from Melbourne to Quaama in 1998 – the year of the ABC TV series Seachange,’ Jen says. ‘I’d been wondering what it was about Seachange that had us all hooked, but it didn’t take me long to work it out. In a small town, everyone’s the star of their own life and plays bit parts in everyone else’s lives. Everyone knows everyone’s business. And some people like that … and some people don’t,’ she laughs. ‘It’s endlessly fascinating.’

Garnet will be launched at the Cobargo RSL Hall, 45 Princes Highway, Cobargo, on Saturday 14 March at 10.30 am. Jen will be in conversation with Heather O’Connor, one of the founding members of our favourite second-hand bookshop, Well Thumbed Books. And the women of Well Thumbed Books will be putting on one of their iconic morning teas. All welcome!

Tash Roberts