Helena Fox on How it Feels to Float

Join Helena Fox in-conversation with our very own Olivia O'Flynn as they discuss Helena's stunning debut YA novel, How it Feels to Float. Think: Sylvia Plath fused with Max Porter!

About the Book

From an incredible new voice in Australian YA comes a mesmerising and radiant debut about love, grief, family and friendship, about intergenerational mental illness, and about how living with it is both a bridge and a chasm to the ones we’ve lost.   

Helena Fox’s voice is as lyrical and as piercing as Cath Crowley, as poignant as Max Porter, with a distinctive cadence and style that is uniquely her own. 

Praise

"Every now and then you pick up a novel and you know you've found something wonderful - a glorious voice, a character you adore. It is exquisite. Read it."​ - ​Cath Crowley, author of ​Words in Deep Blue.  

"This book will explode you into atoms, put you back together, and return the new shape of you to earth. Alive with sensation and rich in thought and feeling, How It Feels to Float intensively explores what it's like to be here now." - Margo Lanagan.

"A modern day ​The Bell Jar​ [in] its honest, nuanced portrayal of grief and life with mental illness. A mesmerising and timely debut."​ - ​Bustle.

"You can tell when a book has had heart and soul poured into it, and this one has. ... a heartbreaking and incredibly important story about mental health and finding belonging, this book is a must read for every teen." - Ayesha, Better Read Than Dead.

About the Author

Helena Fox​ mentors and runs writing workshops for young people, and is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in the U.S. Helena has travelled and lived all around  the world, but of all her adventures, working with young people and helping them find and express their voice has brought her the greatest joy. She lives in Wollongong with her endlessly creative and kind family. ​How It Feels to Float ​is her debut novel.