About

Origins of the Pile

There has always been a Pile by the Bed. Books being read, books waiting to be read, and books that might never make it to the top.

Always a voracious reader, I ended up becoming a judge of the fiction category of the Ned Kelly Awards, Australia’s premier crime fiction awards, in 2008. The annual Ned Kelly Awards short lists for fiction and debut fiction are always a great place to find the absolute best in Australian crime fiction.

And Australian crime fiction is flourishing. There were over fifty-five entries in the best fiction category of the Ned Kellys in 2015. At that time the Pile grew to epic, some might say unmanageable, proportions. Now retired from the judging, I have joined the Australian Crime Writers Association committee to help with organising the Awards.

But the Pile does not just focus on crime. There is plenty of other genre fiction – science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, historical – plus the odd non-genre ‘literary’ novel and a smattering of young adult titles.

Over the past five years, Pile by the Bed reviews have appeared in a range of publications including:

• Aurealis – the Australian science fiction and fantasy magazine
• Austcrime – Australian and New Zealand crime fiction reviews
• Verity La – an on-line creative arts journal

New reviews are currently published in:

• Australian Public Sector News
• Newtown Review of Books – Sydney’s original online review of books
• The Blurb – Australian Arts and Entertainment Reviews

Some reviews are also published on Netgalley and Goodreads. But this is the one place where all of my reviews can be found.

There are great new books coming out all the time and the Pile continues to grow. I don’t always get to all of them, but I try.

Find Pile by the Bed on Facebook and Twitter (@pilebythebed)

Or email me at reviews@pilebythebed.com

Enjoy your reading!