24/11/2025
Next week, The Institute for Australian and Asian Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University (WSU) is thrilled to invite you to Writers in Conversation #4, featuring Siang Lu, winner of the 2025 Miles Franklin Award for his groundbreaking, genre-blending novel Ghost Cities. This event is held in partnership with the WSU’s Writing and Society Research Centre.
Date: Tuesday 2 December 2025
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm (Sydney time)
Zoom webinar. Please RSVP HERE: https://uws.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vpFdrO4ESPi5bfHT4BuDsw #/
Siang Lu, born in Malaysia and raised in Brisbane, completed the manuscript of Ghost Cities in 2015. It took nearly a decade and more than 200 rejections from publishers before the book was finally published in 2024. It then picked up the most prestigious literary award in Australia. The book was hailed by the Miles Franklin judges: “Shimmering with satire and wisdom, and with an absurdist bravura, Ghost Cities is a genuine landmark in Australian literature.” This dramatic turn of events could be straight out of Siang Lu’s own writing—surprising, superbly satirical, wildly imaginative and deeply allegorical.
Ghost Cities has been praised for its sharp humour and incisive critique of art, capitalism, cultural identity, and absurdities of modern life. Described as ambitious, the novel brims with absurdist humour, incisive cultural commentary and biting satire. The novel interlaces a dual narrative between mythical and modern China, drawing inspiration from the country’s hauntingly vacant megacities and from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Richie Black notes, “In Ghost Cities, we see meaning-making—stories, myths, translations—used to build or subvert power across the centuries.” The book’s intricate, layered style is inventive, daring, and thrilling, engaging the reader’s mind and heart. Siang Lu’s storytelling is both beguiling and deeply rewarding.
