Karen Kenny – Queensland writer

Bio

I’m an emerging writer from Meanjin (Brisbane). I grew up in regional Queensland and after completing university in Brisbane, spent eight years in the United Kingdom. Upon returning to Australia, I lived in Melbourne (Naarm) for four years – a city that now serves as the backdrop for my debut fiction manuscript, Crew Cut.

My career has taken me from children’s social work, to town planning, and now in a senior policy role in land use and planning legislation. I’m fascinated by how individual stories are shaped by their environments, and at its heart, Crew Cut is about three people finding (or failing to find) their paths in a rapidly changing society.

Crew Cut

An oil rig sinks. A tape recording surfaces. The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Crew Cut (working title) is a fictional story set in 1980s Victoria – a time of significant social and political upheaval: devastating drought, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the arrival of refugees from the Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic and sweeping shifts in gender roles and women’s education.

In 1980, at a party in rural Victoria, Macka, a gay man estranged from his family, meets Bill, a grieving son who dreams of escaping to the city. Bill moves in with Macka, and they fall in love, but Macka’s insecurities drive them apart. Bill marries Rachel, yet a chance reunion with Macka proves neither has moved on.

When Bill dies in an oil rig disaster, a recording from the accident hints at a secret relationship. Rachel searches for the truth about her husband, unaware her brother Ray is Macka, Bill’s secret. Ray shields his sister from the truth, but as more of Bill’s secrets surface, he must face the question: who did Bill really love?