Heather Taylor-Johnson in-conversation with Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Debbie's earliest memory of her mother is that her mother was not there, but any story of neglect always has two sides. When Debbie's daughter, Heather, says she wants to write a book about her upbringing, Debbie begins to string together jagged memories of growing up with Stella, and it's proving more painful than she could've ever imagined. Part memoir, part biography, part imagination, Little Bit is a story with a third side. Told in the alternating perspectives of Debbie and Stella, Heather writes the story of her mother's and grandmother's lives, where addiction is rife and regret is a constant, and where survival for a woman in a man's world is anything but straightforward. Fiction or nonfiction, this is a book that cannot be categorised and will not be quiet.

Little Bit is Heather Taylor-Johnson’s third novel. Her last, Jean Harley was Here, was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Fiction, while her essays on art and illness have won the Island Nonfiction Prize and been shortlisted for ABR’s Calibre Prize. Her most recent poetry books are the verse novel Rhymes with Hyenas and the collection Alternative Hollywood Ending. She is the editor of Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain, read widely in disability circles. Writing and reading on Kaurna land near Port Adelaide, Heather is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the J M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the number one bestselling author of Dark Mode, a psychological thriller published in multiple territories and languages. Her earlier books are How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, collected fiction and essays. She co-hosts James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about creativity, writing and health.