UWA Publishing acquires Megan Cheong's literary novella Exchange

UWA Publishing has bought Australian and New Zealand rights to Exchange, an autofiction novella by writer and critic Megan Cheong, for release in the second half of 2027.

UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired Australian and New Zealand rights to Exchange, a literary novella by teacher, writer and critic Megan Cheong, the publisher announced on 26 October. Bella Suckling of Annabel Barker Agency negotiated the deal.

UWAP plans to publish the book in Australia in the second half of 2027.

Described as autofiction, Exchange follows a young woman named Megan who moves to Berlin with only a little German and feels painfully self-aware. Between language classes, meals at the university Mensa, video calls home and nights out with other Erasmus students, she searches for the person she hopes to become and for a common language with the people around her. The publisher said the book looks at home, travel, language and the drive to make things, and at how people shape and reshape themselves.

Cheong lives on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land. Her writing has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and Liminal, among other outlets, and she has held a 2024 Hot Desk Fellowship and a 2022 CA-SRB Emerging Critics Fellowship.

Cheong said the novella was an an "attempt to reclaim a time in my life" that she had long felt ashamed of, and thanked the UWAP team for its support. UWAP's Pickard said the book captured the uncertainty of early adulthood in a short and moving way.