Madeleine Watts
Writer. Novels THE INLAND SEA (2021) and ELEGY, SOUTHWEST (Feb 2025). Berlin/NYC. Perpetually Australian.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts
In 2025, with her due date approaching, @madeleinewatts.bsky.social sought to prepare for parenting by arming herself with knowledge—all the better to stave off annoying narratives of motherhood floating in the cultural ether. - Reposted by Madeleine WattsLast year, with her due date approaching, @madeleinewatts.bsky.social sought to prepare for parenting by arming herself with knowledge—all the better to stave off annoying narratives of motherhood floating in the cultural ether.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts“You were stung then, and you’re stung again now. It got you in its tentacles.” In new fiction from @madeleinewatts.bsky.social, jellyfish summon heat waves and prophecy. pioneerworks.org/broadcast/te...
- A new short story about pregnancy, jellyfish, and heat for Broadcast by Pioneer Works, available now: pioneerworks.org/broadcast/te...
- Caught a 22-hour flight to Perth last week to attend a symposium on Helen Garner. Sometimes, as it turns out, it's very nice to meet your idols! madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/helen-garn...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts"Part of why I loved the diaries is that in the diaries the character of ‘Helen’ emerges in full force, fictional and non-fictional all at once". @madeleinewatts.bsky.social on her encounter with Helen Garner at 22, and ever since... madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/helen-garn...
- A return to Substack because I have new Thoughts on making art and having children. madeleinewatts.substack.com/p/revisiting...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsI’m talking to Vijay Khurana about his extremely tense and impressive novel THE PASSENGER SEAT (Peninsula) on Thursday 22 May at @burleyfisher.bsky.social. It’s the London launch. Free tickets! burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsWish I could go to this. A must for anyone in Berlin!
- Berlin! I will at Lettretage tomorrow night (May 9), talking with @ajbwells.bsky.social about ELEGY, SOUTHWEST. Drinks + books for sale, admission free.
- Berlin! I will at Lettretage tomorrow night (May 9), talking with @ajbwells.bsky.social about ELEGY, SOUTHWEST. Drinks + books for sale, admission free.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsI reviewed (and loved) Madeleine Watts’ second novel, Elegy, Southwest, which is thoughtful and quietly compelling, and conjures the familiar sense of steadily trundling towards disaster…. In this week’s @thespectator1828.bsky.social www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
- Reposted by Madeleine Wattsit was genuinely hard to express just how brilliant Madeleine Watts’ second novel Elegy, Southwest is. I reviewed it for @financialtimes.com in the Weekend Mag out tomorrow. www.ft.com/content/8ec8...
- Reposted by Madeleine Wattsmadeleine watts and i are just two millennial ladies who wrote sad climate road-trip novels so this was an esp. fun interview thecreativeindependent.com/people/write...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts"Part of falling in love, and the foundation of the relationship, was the fact that we were both writers, and both really liked one another’s writing. That was woven into the fabric of the relationship ..." — @madeleinewatts.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2025/04/01/b...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts“Both our novels interrogate the juxtaposition or paradox of being on the road with somebody”: A Conversation between Vijay Khurana (@vijaykhurana.bsky.social) and Madeleine Watts (@madeleinewatts.bsky.social) minorliteratures.com/2025/04/01/b...
- Melbourne! This Thursday evening I will be launching Elegy, Southwest in Australia at Readings Emporium with Katherine Brabon. It would be lovely to see you there. Registration here: www.readings.com.au/events/book-...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsAgainst a backdrop of climate change, @madeleinewatts.bsky.social’s ‘Elegy, Southwest’ (@pushkinpress.com) is a lament for a world, a relationship, and the American road-trip novel, writes Abi Andrews www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/03/eleg...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsTomorrow!
- Elegy, Southwest is out in the UK today. If you’re in London next Wednesday, the 19th, I would love to see you at the launch at Daunt Books Hampstead. dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsElegy, Southwest, by Miles Franklin shortlisted author Madeleine Watts, weaves together the themes of imminent personal and environmental collapse.
- Elegy, Southwest is out in the UK today. If you’re in London next Wednesday, the 19th, I would love to see you at the launch at Daunt Books Hampstead. dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts"'Elegy, Southwest' (Simon & Schuster) is artful and beautifully written, as are the depictions of Southwestern wastelands and the life that somehow perseveres there." Reviewed by Meredith Boe
- Reposted by Madeleine Wattskeep your eyes on minor lits to read Madeleine and Vijay discussing The Passenger Seat and Madeleine's Elegy, Southwest
- Vijay’s book is out today in North America! A genius novel by the loveliest of men.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsLovely @readingsbooks.bsky.social notice (by head buyer Alison Huber) for @madeleinewatts.bsky.social's Elegy Southwest: "...sad and funny, grand and intimate, informed and inquisitive, and above all, a beautiful piece of writing." www.readings.com.au/product/9781...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsA beautiful read on land art and climate change by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/when...
- Baltimore! Wednesday evening I will be in conversation with Jeannie Vanasco at Greedy Reads Remington. www.eventbrite.com/e/madeleine-...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsFantastic reflection by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social on Sebald’s Rings of Saturn as an inspiration for her fine new novel Elegy, Southwest lithub.com/wg-sebalds-r...
- Very grateful to have this excerpt from ELEGY, SOUTHWEST - the very beginning - published on @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/elegy-southw...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts"Sebald wanted it to be published in every category imaginable." I yearn for a return to the era when bookstores were arranged by publisher, not genre or category. One like that lasted in Durham N.C. until the early 2000's. Kudos @madeleinewatts.bsky.social for this essay.
- @madeleinewatts.bsky.social on the prescient genius of WG Sebald’s Rings of Saturn.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsMadeleine Watts @madeleinewatts.bsky.social in conversation with Nirica Srinivasan about the uneasy timeliness of her new novel ELEGY, SOUTHWEST - great conversation touching on #davidlynch #wimwenders #climatechange & much more #interlocutorinterviews interlocutorinterviews.com/new-blog/202...
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts@madeleinewatts.bsky.social on the prescient genius of WG Sebald’s Rings of Saturn.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts“Afterwards, you told me it was part of what you loved most about those weeks.” Read from @madeleinewatts.bsky.social’s novel, Elegy, Southwest.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsThe amazing early reception to Elegy, Southwest by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social! 💗 Out 13th March. A novel that entwines a tragic love story with an intelligent and profound consideration of the way we now live alongside environmental breakdown.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts✨ EVENT ✨ Madeleine Watts (@madeleinewatts.bsky.social) will be in conversation with Chloë Ashby to discuss her latest novel Elegy, Southwest at @dauntbooks.bsky.social Hampstead on the 19th of March. Tickets here: dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/madeleine-watts-in-conversation-with-chloe-ashby/
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsNice from @ghostspecies.bsky.social on @madeleinewatts.bsky.social's new novel, Elegy Southwest www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsThis sounds excellent – can't wait to read when it comes out in Aus @madeleinewatts.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsElegy, Southwest by Madeleine Watts review – powerful, poignant and suffused with millennial dread
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsStarted reading this while the Californian fires raged. Apparently 100% contained now, but a sense of melancholy continues I think? A really affecting, timely novel this then by @madeleinewatts.bsky.social – (with a tip of the hat to Sebald) on the past & future of nature, art and us...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsAn absolute pleasure to read @madeleinewatts.bsky.social's new novel "Elegy, Southwest" and interview her about writing in the second person, the private grief of living a reproductive life in America, and ambiguous endings themillions.com/2025/01/made...
- Finished copies of ELEGY, SOUTHWEST arrived this morning! Having hauled around thousands of book boxes as a bookseller at McNally Jackson for six years, the most emotional part of all this is seeing my name and title on the sticker.
- Some thoughts on all the other books and films and pieces of art that I consider forebears to ELEGY, SOUTHWEST.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsAnticipated reading: Elegy Southwest by BWW friend and instructor, Madeleine Watts! Coming in March.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsQuite the time to be reading @madeleinewatts.bsky.social’s new novel…
- Now the new year has begun the release of ELEGY, SOUTHWEST is imminent. If you’re keen on preordering, you can get a 25% discount for the next fortnight with this link from Tertulia, a much better option than ordering from other Terrible Companies that will go unnamed. tertulia.com/book/elegy-s...
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsThe climate books you should put on your 2025 reading list, including new titles from: 🌱 @kpaoletta.bsky.social 🌱 @madeleinewatts.bsky.social 🌱 @frediotto.bsky.social 🌱 @drkatemarvel.bsky.social 🌱 @mikegrunwald.bsky.social 🌱 @peterbrannen.bsky.social
- I didn’t write as much as I would have liked in 2024, but I did read a lot. Of the 143 I finished, these were the ones I loved and learned from the most.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsWow! Book mail day, already very good c/o @ryanruby.bsky.social, just became very very exciting: an ARC of MW’s much-anticipated second novel, Elegy Southwest! Very very grateful then @madeleinewatts.bsky.social (& promise to buy a finished copy early next year for you to sign!)
- Astonishing that I am not actually a 55-year-old man.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts2025 Preview Giveaway 🎇 🎆 Reading ahead?! We’re giving away exclusive proof copies of three of our most exciting books in early 2025 (details 👇👇👇)
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsSANCTA says culture is holy. Don’t dream it. Don’t cut it. Fund it.
- Really lovely to be included in this re-evaluation of contemporary climate fiction (expressing my belief that all fiction is climate fiction whether on purpose or not). www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
- Am I happy because I’m in Paris? Or am I just happy to experience blue sky for the first time since September? (And that the sun sets at 5 and not 4).
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsTo confront the new normal climate change has foisted upon us, the novel needs to adapt. Richard Powers has been at the innovative forefront—so why, asks @madeleinewatts.bsky.social, is his latest filled with coincidence, stereotypes, and gimmicks? thebaffler.com/latest/clear...
- I am taking German lessons, my husband is taking French lessons, our text thread has become trilingual and way too cute.
- The beautiful novella, MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli, is being made free (as an e-book) by Fitzcarraldo for the duration of the Frankfurt Book Fair. This is great, but strips both Shibli and translator Elisabeth Jaquette of royalties they would otherwise reap. Please consider buying a hard copy.
- Had such an incredibly lovely week in London. It’s nice to know that I love it just as much as I did when I first visited 15 years ago, and bodes well for the likelihood that I’ll be living there at least some of next year.
- I’ve never heard so many people audibly weeping at once as in the screening of Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers tonight.
- And joins Aftersun and One Fine Morning as films I have needed to retreat into the Lincoln Center ladies rooms to continue to have a small cry about afterwards.
- Reposted by Madeleine Watts[Not loaded yet]
- One of my editors created an intricate stop-by-stop map of the progression of my new novel 💙
- I cannot stress enough just how thoroughly bizarre is the experience of reading these six specific books simultaneously.
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsCometh the hour, cometh the @Terribleman. Frank Wynne has set up a crowdfund to keep The White Review going - the most important literary magazine of his (and my) generation. It's a long-standing cultural necessity. Please donate/ retweet gofund.me/41a4df2e gofund.me/41a4df2e
- Reposted by Madeleine WattsI am begging you to blurb better.
