Genevieve Novak
Author. Editor.
Croissant enthusiast.
Slightly salty.
Very refreshing.
Genevieve is a bestselling author, editor and columnist from Naarm / Melbourne.
Her novels, No Hard Feelings and Crushing, have been published in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the UK, and serve as a cursed mirror to neurotic women everywhere. Her work has also appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, and more. She has twice been shortlisted for Booktopia’s Favourite Australian Book Award.
Genevieve has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and seriously considers quitting the biz every three years to pursue a PhD in Russian History.
She loves whiny ’70s folk music and her dog, Heidi. She hates being called Gen.
Work
Hungover, underpaid and overwhelmed, this isn't where Penny expected to be as she reached her late twenties. Annie is about to become a senior associate at her law firm, Bec has just got engaged, Leo is dating everyone this side of the Yarra, and Penny is just ... waiting. Waiting for Max, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, to allow her to spend the night, waiting for the promotion she was promised, waiting for her Valium to kick in. Waiting for her real life to start.
Out of excuses and sick of falling behind, Penny is determined to turn things around. She's going to make it work with Max, impress her tyrannical boss, quit seeing her useless therapist, remember to water her plants, and stop having panic attacks in the work toilets.
But soon she's back to doomscrolling on Instagram, necking bottles of Aldi's finest sauvignon blanc, and criticising herself with renewed vigour and loathing. As her goals seem further away than ever, she has to wonder: when bad habits feel so good, how do you trust what's right for you?
Serial monogamist Marnie is running late to her own identity crisis. After a decade of twisting herself into different versions of the ideal girlfriend, she's swearing off relationships for good. Forever. Done. No more, no thank you.
Pretty inconvenient time to meet Isaac: certified dreamboat and the only man who has ever truly got her. It's cool, though, they're just friends, he's got someone else, and she has more important things to worry about. Like who she is, what she wants, and what the hell she ever saw in the love(s) of her life in the first place.
Flanked by overwhelmed new mum Nicola, terminally single Claud, and eternal pessimist Kit, Marnie reckons with the question: who are we when we're on our own?
Buy a book, pay an author’s rent
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Genevieve Novak writes some of the most relatable characters in Australia; she wears her heart on the jacket of her book. ... [Her] honesty and absorbing characters make her voice so unique and compelling.
The Australian
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Clever, funny and surprisingly sweet.
Toni Jordan
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A sharp, funny and biting exploration of a classic millennial existential crisis.
Books+Publishing
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Mostly made me feel sad for straight women but by the end I was vaguely annoyed by the whole thing. Two stars.
Someone on Goodreads
Events
Please don’t ask me to leave my house.
Get in touch
Acquisitions, options, effusive professional praise
Jane Novak Literary Agency
(no relation, just a cute coincidence)
Editing enquiries
Love letters
Just so you know 💙
I’ve outed awful men and their gross messages to their families and employers before, and I’ll do it again.