JUSTINE ETTLER was the first female Australian debut writer to sell two books to a mainstream publisher. Her second novel, The River Ophelia, was a bestseller. Her new novel, Bohemia Beach, is published by Transit Lounge.

MRS DALLOWAY
Virginia Woolf

Reading Mrs Dalloway came as a complete revelation: there I was, my thoughts, written down just as they happened in real life. Of course my circumstances were different from Mrs Dalloway's, I was a student in my 20s in Sydney not a middle-aged member of the British establishment, so the content couldn't be more different, but her wonderful stream of consciousness and bold, modern experimentation helped inspire my first novel (I named a minor character after her in tribute).

EMPIRE OF THE SENSELESS
Kathy Acker

Acker's novels continue to influence my writing today. From her postmodern technique to her outspoken feminism I discovered that it's OK and maybe even necessary for women writers to criticise patriarchy, and that deconstructing the male-dominated literary canon can be entertaining, even fun. My early anti-realist orientation owes a lot to Acker's ideas as does my commitment to writing about subjects that other people don't want to talk about.