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Tasmanian Literary Awards

Invisibly Grace by Avery McDougall (Forty South Publishing)

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Invisibly Grace

Invisibly Grace is a contemporary young adult novel set in a fictional suburb of Launceston about a young woman with an autoimmune disease. Her family is new to the state and, to seem normal, Grace tries to hide her invisible illness at her new school. Through the course of the novel Grace makes friends and enemies, adores her sister, gets diagnosed with mixed connective tissue disorder, and looks to a future that she knows isn’t guaranteed. In a post-pandemic world, stories with immunocompromised characters are even more important as part of our cultural narrative.

About the author

Avery McDougall published her debut YA novel in April 2022 with Forty South Publishing. She is a teacher librarian by degree and a youth worker in practice, specialising in working with those, like her, who collect 'A-Words' (autistic, autoimmune warrior, author, awesome.... the list goes on!). Avery lives in Launceston, Tasmania with her beloved husband and a destruction goddess masquerading as a house rabbit where she continues to write stories that defy the 'inspiration porn' tropes of disability fiction.