Tessa Lunney is a novelist, poet, and academic. In 2013, she graduated from the Western Sydney University with a Doctorate of Creative Arts that explored silence in Australian war fiction. In 2016, she won the prestigious Griffith University Josephine Ulrick Prize for Literature for ‘Chess and Dragonflies’ and the A Room Of Her Own Foundation Orlando Prize for Fiction for her story ‘Those Ebola Burners Them’. In 2014, Tessa was the recipient of an Australia Council ArtStart grant for literature.
Tessa’s poetry, short fiction, and reviews have been published in Southerly, Cordite, Mascara Review and Contrapasso, among others. Tessa currently works as a casual academic at universities around Sydney.
Tessa’s debut novel, April in Paris, 1921, was published in Australia by HarperCollins and in the US by Pegasus Books .
The next book in the Kiki Button series, Autumn Leaves, 1922, will be published in November 2021 through Pegasus Books.
Praise for April in Paris, 1921:
“Kiki Button lives by her wits, her style and an irrepressible joie de vivre” – Sulari Gentill, author of A Few Right Thinking Men
“Fascinating characters, beautifully written” Kate Williams, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Queen Victoria
“Lunney’s vibrant picture of Paris, chock-full of flapper fashion and cameos of the Lost Generation, will leave readers eager for more.” Publishers Weekly
“Button is naughtier than Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher, as strong as Suzanne Arruda’s Jade del Cameron, and every bit as clever as Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope. This thoroughly entertaining, delightfully witty debut is imbued with Paris’ unique ambiance and will have readers eagerly awaiting Button’s next adventure.” Booklist (starred)