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James McKenzie Watson writes fiction with a focus on health and rural Australia. His novel Denizen won the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize and was published by Penguin Random House in 2022. Denizen also received a 2021 Varuna Residential Fellowship and a 2021 KSP Residential Fellowship.

James has written for The Guardian, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and the Newtown Review of Books. He has appeared at events including the Sydney Writers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival and BAD Crime Sydney. He co-hosts the writing and health podcast James and Ashley Stay at Home with author Ashley Kalagian Blunt and works as a nurse.

James McKenzie Watson writes fiction with a focus on health and rural Australia. His novel Denizen won the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize. He co-hosts the writing and health podcast James and Ashley Stay at Home and works as a nurse.

Download a hi-res author photo here. (Image credit: Michele Danno)

Download a hi-res cover of Denizen here.

Winner of the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize, Denizen is a thriller exploring rural Australia’s simultaneous celebration of harsh country and stoic people – a tension that forces its inhabitants to dangerous breaking points. 

On a remote property in western NSW, nine-year-old Parker fears that something is wrong with his brain. His desperate attempts to control this internal chaos spark a series of events that gallop from his control in deadly and devastating ways.

Years later, Parker, now a father himself, returns to the bushland he grew up in for a camping trip with old friends. When this reunion descends into chaos amid revelations of unresolved fear, guilt and violence, Parker must finally address the consequences of his childhood actions. 

On a remote property in western NSW, nine-year-old Parker fears something is wrong with his brain, a suspicion apparently confirmed when he commits an abhorrent act of violence. Years later, Parker returns to the bush with old friends, however, this reunion descends into chaos and Parker is finally forced to address the consequences of his childhood.