Salt Upon the Water

Join award-winning author and academic Dr Lyn Dickens for a discussion of her Miles Franklin longlisted novel, Salt Upon the Water, and the inspiration behind the novel's 'alternative history' of South Australia's 'founding' colonial figure, Colonel William Light. 

Lyn will discuss her use of the State Library's invaluable archives, the blend of fact and fiction, and her fortuitous opportunity to visit William Light's childhood home in Suffolk, as well as the implications of Light's heritage for Australian history, culture, and identity.

Set in the early 19th century in South Australia, England, Italy, India and Malaysia, Salt Upon the Water blends magical realism with historical fiction to explore William Light's under-told Asian ancestry. Part love story, part colonial critique, the novel won the 2024 Arts SA Unpublished Manuscript Award and was longlisted for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award.

Image: book cover of Salt Upon the Water by Lyn Dickens

Note: Auto-caption is used in this video which may result in typos or grammatical errors.

About the author

Lyn Dickens is an award-winning writer, editor, and academic. Her debut novel Salt Upon the Water was longlisted for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award and the winner of the 2024 Arts South Australia Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award. She was the 2025 Arts and Culture winner of the Asian Australian Leadership Awards, and the Co-Founder of the literary journal The Saltbush Review. Lyn has a doctorate in Sociology and a PhD in Creative Writing, and is an Adjunct Fellow of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at Adelaide University.