Meg Caddy literally launching her book (via a small catapult) at The Pirate Bar in WA. Photo. Supplied.
Having a book launch at a bookshop is very common and tends to follow a familiar script: a crowd assembles, hemmed in by mountains of printed titles at every corner. Then it’s a case of musical chairs – there are never enough of them, so you have to factor in the probability of standing up for the duration of the one-hour-plus event.
Sometimes there are nibbles – cheese and wine, biscuits and cupcakes – but otherwise the rundown is the same: a host poised to interview the chuffed but slightly stressed writer, a scattering of questions from the audience and everyone clapping politely before exiting with their signed copy.
Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
