By JUDITH NANGALA CRISPIN

The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan is a new collection of short stories published by Penguin Random House Australia.

Deeply rooted in Sufi mysticism, AI technological speculation, and the intensely surreal imagination of its author Omar Musa, it spans the globe, from Australia, Borneo to Bosnia, and further—out into the solar system itself.

Omar’s award-winning tales highlight the love and loss of the human condition.

There are pirates and talking lizards. The holy books of various religions are prayerfully evoked. “Grow a new set of teeth every fifty-nine days” the author advises us. “Become best friends with night herons. Eat their children. Braid plastic bags into garlands and pray to the sun.”

Omar’s characters include scam artists and K-pop stars, time travellers and suicidal boxers—flawed and suffering, each reaching for redemption, for some small light in the wreckage of their lives.

This is the book we need right now. A book that does not oversimplify the strangeness of our time, but leans into it. A book that reassures us that love can still prevail, that our grief, addictions and doubt can be transformative, that they can shape us into something extraordinary.

The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan, reads like the rantings of a lunatic, like prophecy, like poetry, like messages passed between the cells of some imaginary jail. There really isn’t another book like it.

Omar Musa, an author, visual artist, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan, has published two novels, including Fierceland, which won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and is currently long listed for the Miles Franklin and also the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award. He has also produced three books of poetry, five hip-hop records, and two plays, Since Ali Died and The Offering (A Plastic Ocean Oratorio), with cellist Mariel Roberts Musa. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Best Australian Stories and Best of Australian Poems. His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

Judith Nangala Crispin will be in conversation with Omar Musa at the official launch of The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan, The Q, Queanbeyan, 6pm, July 8.