Author, artist, rapper, and poet, Omar Musa, joins Mel on Literati Glitterati for a "caffeinated conversation" on culture, identity, life, writing, and art. His novel Fierceland won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Hailing from Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Omar shares his connection to his hometown, drawing on Queanbeyan slang, community identity, and Ngunnawal language that features in his latest short story collection, The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan.

"I’ve always been trying to find the heart and the spirit and the soul and the kind of ignored outsider stories of a place like Queanbeyan."

They also discuss Omar's Muslim identity, monoculture, the "flattening of identity", and how this has impacted him as a writer and creative.

Fierceland and The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan are out now via Penguin or your local bookstore or library.