We are thrilled to announce that we’ve signed Briohny Doyle’s first work, to be published in early 2017. Her book, which has the working title Adult Fantasy: my search for true maturity in an age of mortgages, marriages, and other adult milestones, is a lively and timely exploration of whether the current generation is redefining what it means to be an adult today.
When Briohny turns 30, she has a PhD but is working as a greengrocer, and has little idea where her life is headed. This begins a spirited enquiry to examine aspects of adulthood and discover how we develop and cultivate our ideas about education, work, relationships, procreation, and ageing. Briohny’s investigation leads us through executive boardrooms, teenage bedrooms, and wedding ballrooms, into the big claims of philosophy and the neon buzz of pop culture. What, she asks, does a culture that simultaneously trivialises and reveres youth do to our conception of maturity, and what possibilities exist today for meaningful adulthood? Part personal essay, part cultural criticism, Adult Fantasy is a wry and pointed inquiry into how we respond when our cultural clocks start ticking.
Briohny Doyle was one of the inaugural winners of the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers for her lively essay on marriage in the twenty-first century. She is also a researcher of the apocalypse, a regular columnist for The Lifted Brow, and a contributor to publications such as Going Down Swinging, Meanjin, and Overland.
We think Briohny is a very exciting talent, and we look forward to bringing you her work in 2017.
Welcome to Scribe, Briohny!