Jeremy Chambers – June 24 2018

Jeremy completed majors in Philosophy and English at The University of Melbourne and has undertaken studies with the Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis. He has worked as a furniture removalist, newspaper distributor, hardware salesman and vineyard labourer and has trained as an amateur boxer. In 1997, Jeremy fell ill with glandular fever and his health further declined, eventually becoming bedridden from 2000 to 2005 with chronic fatigue syndrome and suffering from photophobia. During his long illness, he recounted to himself the stories told by vineyard workers to pass the time and started composing a novel in his head, later published as his debut novel, The Vintage and the Gleaning. In addition to his two novels, Jeremy has had short stories published in The White Review, Review of Australian Fiction, Higher Arc and Griffith Review.

The Vintage and the Gleaning
Text Publishing, 2010; ISBN 9781921656507
Smithy is a retired shearer turned vineyard worker in his autumn years. It is hard graft, but Smithy has always worked with his hands. Physically all but destroyed after a lifetime of hard liquor, but now sober, he begins to see the world with new eyes, a meditative, singular figure in the town’s bar on rowdy Friday nights. But clarity can be a curse. Finally confronting his past, overwhelmed by long-buried feelings of regret, nostalgia and loss, Smithy steps in to help a young woman in a desperate situation. A cautious friendship develops, but Charlotte’s husband is widely suspected of murder, and Smithy begins to fear that he will pay a high price for his gallantry. Written with an authentic music, and infused with beauty, brutality and sadness, The Vintage and the Gleaning is a compelling observation of men, women and country.

Suburbia
Text Publishing, 2017; ISBN 9781922079572
‘I think what Darren’s really good at, is that he sort of understands other people. Sometimes, even if I don’t say anything, he seems to know what I’m feeling anyway.’ Cassie’s face lit up. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s what I think too. That’s exactly what I think ….’ Roland lives with his parents, Graham and Joyce, and his younger sister, Lily, in the golden light of an outer suburb, Glenella. He dreams of escaping, of finding an intoxicating life somewhere else. He is in love with Cassie Noble, the daughter of his parents’ friends Reg and Colleen. But when Darren Wilson moves into the neighbourhood and attracts the interest of both teens, a conflict emerges that threatens the friendship between the two families.