FESTIVAL 2026

the belburd

by Nardi Simpson

Hachette Book Group

FESTIVAL 2026

the belburd

by Nardi Simpson

Hachette Book Group

Synopsis

From the award-winning author of Song of the Crocodile comes a lyrical and masterfully woven novel about women, creation, belonging and the precious fragility of a life.

‘Mothers are experts at overflow . . . You may forget the words or kisses or gifts they give but that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen . . . We don’t need to remember all the love poured into us. We need to be thankful that it makes us. When it comes to love, it’s all about being. Not remembering so much.’

Ginny Dilboong is a young poet, fierce and deadly. She’s making sense of the world and her place in it, grappling with love, family and the spaces in which to create her art. Like powerful women before her, Ginny hugs the edges of waterways, and though she is a daughter of Country, the place that shapes her is not hers. Determined and brave, Ginny seeks to protect the truth of others while learning her own. The question is how?

And, all the while, others are watching. Some old, some new. They are the sound of the belburd as it echoes through the world; the sound of cars and trucks and trains. They are in trees and paper and the shape of ideas. They are the builder and the built. Everything, even Ginny, is because of them.

The Belburd is a powerful story that shows us we are all connected from before we began to long after we begin again.

About the Author

Nardi Simpson is a freshwater Yuwaalaraay storyteller and performer. She is a founding member of Australia’s longest-active all-female, all-Indigenous band ‘Stiff Gins’ who have been performing and touring nationally and internationally for 28 years. Her first work of fiction ‘Song of the Crocodile’ was winner of the 2018 Black & Write! Fellowship and long listed for the 2021 Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Awards. Her second novel the belburd was released in 2024. Nardi is a graduate of Ngarra Burria First Peoples Composers and is a researcher at the University of Sydney where she works with her community to keep song, language and story thriving. 

Read more about Nardi Simpson

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