Magabala is excited to announce the acquisition of the powerful literary fiction novella Children of Crows by Wiradjuri writer Sharleigh Crittenden, in a deal brokered by Rebecca Slater at a4 Literary.

Children of Crows follows the story of a young Wiradjuri mother as she moves restlessly through her life. Over the coming months, after her brother suddenly reappears, the past begins to press in from every direction. As a pair of crows circle and settle, so too do old stories, wounds, and inheritances, disturbing the delicate equilibrium of suburban family life. 

Children of Crows is an elliptical novella that invites readers into the charged space between thought and action. It explores grief, motherhood, mental illness, survivors guilt, and the uneasy work of imagining a future while attempting to find liberation from the past.

Magabala Editor Dr Arlie Alizzi said:

This is one of the most exciting and complex new pieces of Australian literary fiction I’ve read in a long time, by a sharp, thoughtful and brave Wiradjuri author whose work is going to make waves.

Sharleigh Crittenden said:

I’m thrilled to have found the right home for my debut, which was built slowly, fragment by fragment. To have it welcomed with such enthusiasm and care by the team at Magabala, who have believed in it from the very beginning, is an enormous gift.

Children of Crows can be compared to Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill and Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch.

Magabala has acquired World rights and will publish the title in 2027.

About the author

Sharleigh Crittenden is a Wiradjuri writer, whose love of experimental writing and passion for truth-telling drives her writing practice. Based on Wangal Country, Australia, her writing has been recognized in various shortlists and prizes, including being shortlisted for the 2024 Nakata Brophy Poetry Prize for Young Indigenous Writers. Sharleigh’s poems, flash fiction and creative non-fiction appear or are forthcoming in Island Magazine, Griffith Review, The Rumpus, Suburban Review, Portside Review and elsewhere. In 2024, she was awarded a Varuna First Nations Fellowship. Sharleigh’s debut work of fiction, Children of Crows, will be published by Magabala Books in 2027.