Omega park

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Tags: books, centenary-edition, Emmanuel College, UQP

Award-winning writer and UQ alumnus Amy Barker returned to Emmanuel College last year to help launch her debut novel Omega Park.

Click here to read an exclusive extract from Omega Park

Ms Barker was awarded the Best Emerging Author – Manuscript Award for Omega Park at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards in 2008, which included a publishing contract with the University of Queensland Press for the novel.

Faculty of Arts Executive Dean Professor Richard Fotheringham presided over the launch in September.

Omega Park is set in a fictional public housing estate on the Gold Coast and follows the lives of two young men as they struggle to overcome personal and societal obstacles including rioting, discrimination and isolation.

Ms Barker can identify with the story, having once lived in public housing herself.

“I felt compelled to write it, drawing on experiences from my own past and also weighing in on the controversies surrounding the riots in suburbs like Macquarie Fields around the time I was writing,” she said.

Ms Barker originally enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts/Laws degree at UQ, quickly realising her passion wasn’t law moots but words.

As a member of the UQ Link program, which assists school leavers from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, Ms Barker was given a 12-month residence at Emmanuel College.

By Eliza Plant

Omega Park, UQP, RRP $24.95

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