Praise for Sydney Noir and my short story ‘The Patternmaker’ in recent reviews: Ed Wright in the Australian: ‘Only Julie Koh’s wonderfully creepy femme fatale story really reaches into the opportunities for cosmopolitan noir in a city where one in three inhabitants was born in another country.’ Chris Flynn in Australian Book Review:  ‘This long-time fan […]

In this really wonderful NZ podcast Better off Read, Pip Adam talks to comedian and writer Eamonn Marra about my short story ‘Cream Reaper’ and Eamonn’s fantastic ‘Dog Farm, Food Game’. Quote of the episode: “…I don’t know how to do sad without funny because I think all sad things are funny.” They talk about depression […]

I’m so happy to have been named a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, alongside Rajith Savanadasa, Jennifer Down and Josephine Rowe. The award, now in its twenty-first year, recognises emerging writing talent aged 35 and younger. This year’s judges were Linda Morris, Miles Franklin award winner Michelle de Kretser, and Matt McGuire, deputy director […]

This is one of my favourite pieces of writing about Portable Curiosities from a fellow (former) Sydneysider, Jennifer Mills. I get the impression Koh is as delighted by the awfulness of late capitalism as she is horrified by it, and that gives me hope that our imminent dystopian future will at least not be humourless. Though […]

A brilliant review of Portable Curiosities, and collections by fellow UQP authors Tara June Winch and Paddy O’Reilly, in the Sydney Review of Books. These twelve richly satirical narratives are absurdist, bleak, and blackly comic. Koh balances political commentary with portraits of society’s most perversely self-defeating behaviours that are often wickedly funny, and sometimes moving. … Koh is not […]

Click here to listen to Chris Womersley, author of Cairo, Bereft and The Low Road, discussing Portable Curiosities and Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women on Triple R Breakfasters this morning.