THE Port Macquarie Library will soon host award-winning Melbourne author Anne Freeman, who will be in town to discuss her brand-new novel titled The Time After Now.
Ms Freeman writes contemporary fiction about women who have become entangled in life and the remarkable ways they free themselves.
She is the author of three women’s fiction novels.
Her third and newest novel, The Time After Now, represents invisible disabilities and draws on her experience of type one diabetes.
The author is set to discuss with event-goers the significance of authentic representations and why the readers of today are searching for stories written with lived experience.
“The conversation will also explore the long shadow of youth, how choices made decades earlier continue to shape our lives, the power and permanence of digital images, and the novel’s central theme of radical self-acceptance,” Ms Freeman said.
The story is set in Melbourne, in both a suburban neighbourhood and the underground rave scene. The polished, carefully built life of protagonist Olivia begins to fall apart as intimate photographs emerge from her wild past following the death of her first love.
The novel achieved second place in the 2025 CYA Writers & Illustrators Conference Competition (Published: Writing for Adults) and was longlisted in the 2025 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.
The talk with the author will take place at 11am on Wednesday, 7 October. While the event is free, bookings are recommended.
By Shalise LEESFIELD
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