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Madeleine Watts

@madeleinewatts.bsky.social

Writer. Novels THE INLAND SEA (2021) and ELEGY, SOUTHWEST (Feb 2025). Berlin/NYC. Perpetually Australian.

567 Followers  |  417 Following  |  36 Posts  |  Joined: 18.09.2023  |  2.0059

Latest posts by madeleinewatts.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Helen Garner and the In-between Space For the last five days, Iโ€™ve been in Perth, attending a symposium at the University of Western Australia on the work of Helen Garner.

Caught a 22-hour flight to Perth last week to attend a symposium on Helen Garner. Sometimes, as it turns out, it's very nice to meet your idols!

madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/helen-garn...

01.08.2025 09:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Helen Garner and the In-between Space For the last five days, Iโ€™ve been in Perth, attending a symposium at the University of Western Australia on the work of Helen Garner.

"Part of why I loved the diaries is that in the diaries the character of โ€˜Helenโ€™ emerges in full force, fictional and non-fictional all at once". @madeleinewatts.bsky.social on her encounter with Helen Garner at 22, and ever since... madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/helen-garn...

30.07.2025 16:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 18    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Revisiting Stravinsky's Lunch Thinking about women artists and having children

A return to Substack because I have new Thoughts on making art and having children.

madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/revisiting...

07.07.2025 21:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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LAUNCH: The Passenger Seat By Vijay Khurana Thursday 22nd Mayย  6.30 to 9pm Join us to celebrate the launch ofย The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana, published by Peninsula Press.ย  Vijay will be discussing his new novel with Lucie Elven; author of...

Iโ€™m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. Itโ€™s the London launch. Free tickets!
burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...

13.05.2025 08:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Wish I could go to this. A must for anyone in Berlin!

08.05.2025 12:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Berlin! I will at Lettretage tomorrow night (May 9), talking with @ajbwells.bsky.social about ELEGY, SOUTHWEST. Drinks + books for sale, admission free.

08.05.2025 12:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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The road trip from hell: Elegy, Southwest, by Madeleine Watts, reviewed Throughout her quietly compelling second novel, Elegy, Southwest, Madeleine Watts conjures a sense of trundling steadily towards disaster. The narrator, a young Australian woman called Eloise, is reco...

I reviewed (and loved) Madeleine Wattsโ€™ second novel, Elegy, Southwest, which is thoughtful and quietly compelling, and conjures the familiar sense of steadily trundling towards disasterโ€ฆ. In this weekโ€™s @thespectator1828.bsky.social www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

24.04.2025 09:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Elegy, Southwest โ€” a road trip though Americaโ€™s apocalyptic landscapes Madeleine Wattsโ€™ shrewdly funny novel anchors the climate crisis in personal grief and prescient parallels with Californiaโ€™s wildfires

it was genuinely hard to express just how brilliant Madeleine Wattsโ€™ second novel Elegy, Southwest is. I reviewed it for @financialtimes.com in the Weekend Mag out tomorrow.

www.ft.com/content/8ec8...

04.04.2025 12:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Writer Madeleine Watts on balancing growth and guarding against burnout โ€“ The Creative Independent Writer Madeleine Watts discusses taking creative work seriously, describing a world impacted by climate change, and the importance of replenishing the soul with art

madeleine watts and i are just two millennial ladies who wrote sad climate road-trip novels so this was an esp. fun interview

thecreativeindependent.com/people/write...

06.03.2025 14:52 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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โ€œBoth our novels interrogate the juxtaposition or paradox of being on the road with somebodyโ€: A Conversation between Vijay Khurana and Madeleine Watts With The Passenger Seat and Elegy, Southwest coming out within weeks of each other, minor lits decided to capitalize on the coincidence and get novelist couple Vijay Khurana and Madeleine Watts togโ€ฆ

"Part of falling in love, and the foundation of the relationship, was the fact that we were both writers, and both really liked one anotherโ€™s writing. That was woven into the fabric of the relationship ..."

โ€” @madeleinewatts.bsky.social

minorliteratures.com/2025/04/01/b...

01.04.2025 16:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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โ€œBoth our novels interrogate the juxtaposition or paradox of being on the road with somebodyโ€: A Conversation between Vijay Khurana and Madeleine Watts With The Passenger Seat and Elegy, Southwest coming out within weeks of each other, minor lits decided to capitalize on the coincidence and get novelist couple Vijay Khurana and Madeleine Watts togโ€ฆ

โ€œBoth our novels interrogate the juxtaposition or paradox of being on the road with somebodyโ€: A Conversation between Vijay Khurana (@vijaykhurana.bsky.social) and Madeleine Watts (@madeleinewatts.bsky.social)

minorliteratures.com/2025/04/01/b...

01.04.2025 08:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 5    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Melbourne! This Thursday evening I will be launching Elegy, Southwest in Australia at Readings Emporium with Katherine Brabon. It would be lovely to see you there. Registration here:

www.readings.com.au/events/book-...

01.04.2025 03:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Against a backdrop of climate change, @madeleinewatts.bsky.socialโ€™s โ€˜Elegy, Southwestโ€™ (@pushkinpress.com) is a lament for a world, a relationship, and the American road-trip novel, writes Abi Andrews www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/03/eleg...

18.03.2025 14:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Tomorrow!

18.03.2025 12:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Uncertainties, mysteries, doubts: Madeleine Watts takes an elegiac road trip through the American southwest

Elegy, Southwest, by Miles Franklin shortlisted author Madeleine Watts, weaves together the themes of imminent personal and environmental collapse.

02.03.2025 19:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This is lovely, thank you very much!

14.03.2025 12:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Madeleine Watts in conversation with Chloรซ Ashby Buy tickets for the event with Madeleine Watts in conversation with Chloรซ Ashby at Daunt Books Hampstead from Daunt Books today.

Elegy, Southwest is out in the UK today. If youโ€™re in London next Wednesday, the 19th, I would love to see you at the launch at Daunt Books Hampstead.

dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/...

13.03.2025 08:54 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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A Paradise Built on Quicksand in Madeleine Wattsโ€™s "Elegy, Southwest" - Chicago Review of Books Our review of Madeleine Watts novel Elegy, Southwest.

"'Elegy, Southwest' (Simon & Schuster) is artful and beautifully written, as are the depictions of Southwestern wastelands and the life that somehow perseveres there."

Reviewed by Meredith Boe

18.02.2025 20:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

keep your eyes on minor lits to read Madeleine and Vijay discussing The Passenger Seat and Madeleine's Elegy, Southwest

05.03.2025 14:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Vijayโ€™s book is out today in North America! A genius novel by the loveliest of men.

04.03.2025 16:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Elegy, Southwest Elegy, Southwest is a novel which entwines a tragic love story with an intelligent and profound consideration of the way we now live alongside environmental breakdown; an elegy for lostโ€ฆ

Lovely @readingsbooks.bsky.social notice (by head buyer Alison Huber) for @madeleinewatts.bsky.social's Elegy Southwest: "...sad and funny, grand and intimate, informed and inquisitive, and above all, a beautiful piece of writing." www.readings.com.au/product/9781...

02.03.2025 09:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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When the Water Falls - Orion Magazine How Robert Smithsonโ€™s Spiral Jetty tells the story of a changing climate

A beautiful read on land art and climate change by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/when...

26.02.2025 13:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Madeleine Watts presents ELEGY, SOUTHWEST Madeleine Watts joins us in Remington to talk about her new novel ELEGY, SOUTHWEST, in conversation with Jeannie Vanasco!

Baltimore! Wednesday evening I will be in conversation with Jeannie Vanasco at Greedy Reads Remington.

www.eventbrite.com/e/madeleine-...

26.02.2025 02:41 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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WG Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn Might Be the Perfect Climate Change Novel In the final months of 2020, finding myself stranded by travel restrictions in Berlin, I re-read W.G. Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn. I had picked it out of my bookshelf and slipped it into my suitcase tโ€ฆ

Fantastic reflection by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social on Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn as an inspiration for her fine new novel Elegy, Southwest lithub.com/wg-sebalds-r...

21.02.2025 20:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Beautiful novel by Madeleine Watts that I had the pleasure of reading as it was being written. Looking forward to reading in full when itโ€™s published in the UK next month!

20.02.2025 19:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Elegy, Southwest Afterwards, you told me it was part of what you loved most about those weeks. You got up every morning and you just drove, with only the vaguest sense of where we would be sleeping thatnight. You dโ€ฆ

Very grateful to have this excerpt from ELEGY, SOUTHWEST - the very beginning - published on @literaryhub.bsky.social

lithub.com/elegy-southw...

20.02.2025 19:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

"Sebald wanted it to be published in every category imaginable." I yearn for a return to the era when bookstores were arranged by publisher, not genre or category. One like that lasted in Durham N.C. until the early 2000's.

Kudos @madeleinewatts.bsky.social for this essay.

20.02.2025 17:18 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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MADELEINE WATTS ELEGY SOUTHWEST INTERVIEW โ€” Interlocutor Author Madeleine Watts in conversation with Nirica Srinivasan about the uneasy timeliness of her new novel Elegy, Southwest, in which a young married couple on a road trip through the American southwe...

Madeleine Watts @madeleinewatts.bsky.social in conversation with Nirica Srinivasan about the uneasy timeliness of her new novel ELEGY, SOUTHWEST - great conversation touching on #davidlynch #wimwenders #climatechange & much more #interlocutorinterviews interlocutorinterviews.com/new-blog/202...

20.02.2025 17:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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WG Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn Might Be the Perfect Climate Change Novel In the final months of 2020, finding myself stranded by travel restrictions in Berlin, I re-read W.G. Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn. I had picked it out of my bookshelf and slipped it into my suitcase tโ€ฆ

@madeleinewatts.bsky.social on the prescient genius of WG Sebaldโ€™s Rings of Saturn.

20.02.2025 16:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 26    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Elegy, Southwest Afterwards, you told me it was part of what you loved most about those weeks. You got up every morning and you just drove, with only the vaguest sense of where we would be sleeping thatnight. You dโ€ฆ

โ€œAfterwards, you told me it was part of what you loved most about those weeks.โ€ Read from @madeleinewatts.bsky.socialโ€™s novel, Elegy, Southwest.

19.02.2025 21:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

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