Eva Collins' Ask No Questions shortlisted for Prime Minister's Literary Award, CBCA Award, and Mary Gilmore Award

Congratulations to author Eva Collins on being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Young Adult Literature, CBCA’s Notable Book of the Year for older readers, and the Mary Gilmore Award for a published first book of poetry for

Ask No Questions

a paperback YA non fiction for 16+ published by Puncher & Wattmann

July 2022

This book traces the author's family's journey out of Poland to Australia during the Cold War. It is a verse memoir, laced with pathos but also humour making it easier to carry the message of displacement and adaptation across.

The language is sparing and accessible to people of all ages.
Just as for the Australians, migrants are foreign, so too for the migrants it is the Australians who are foreign. There is the initial stage of discomfort.

Well done on being shortlisted for three awards in 2023.

New YA non fiction for Eva Collins

Congratulations to Eva Collins on the publication of

Ask No Questions

A young adult non-fiction title for 15 years to adult published by Puncher & Wattman.

Laced with pathos and humour, Ask No Questions is a refrain Eva’s parents repeated when they lived in Communist Poland. This memoir records her family’s migration to Australia during the Cold War, presenting powerful images in an understated poetic form.

Although there are compelling reasons why people emigrate, the transition is rarely easy. You gain something and lose something but the gain and the loss don’t necessarily cancel each other out.