What’s happening?
Southern Downs author Susan Mackie has been named the 2025 RUBY Award Winner in the Romantic Elements/Women’s Fiction category at the Romantic Writers of Australia Conference in Hobart.
Why it matters
The award recognises Susan Mackie’s storytelling talent and shows that regional voices can achieve national acclaim. Her win highlights the creative strength flourishing in communities like Warwick.
Local impact
The Southern Downs is celebrating one of its own. Susan Mackie’s Barrington Series has become a love letter to small-town life, connecting deeply with regional readers and offering city readers a glimpse of community ties where neighbours know your name.
By the numbers
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The Barrington Book Club, book eight in the Barrington Series, was released in June 2024 and won the RUBY Award.
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Susan Mackie has published ten Barrington novels, with every book becoming a bestseller.
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Her debut novel, Charlie’s Will, published in 2020, reached number one in its Amazon genre.
Zoom In
“I’ve been dreaming of writing books since I was eight years old,” Susan Mackie said. “To be recognised at this level is such an honour and a reminder that stories written in small country towns can resonate far beyond our own backyard.”
Susan Mackie explained the inspiration behind The Barrington Book Club: “Meeting at the pub on Friday night no longer worked for some, as they had children and others were planning babies. Creating a book club for monthly catch-ups seemed a better way to do that. And I wanted to set the story over a one-year period, punctuated by 12 book club meetings.”
She added: “I thought it would be fun to feature REAL books by REAL authors… This led to a lot of amazing author-support and many collaborations. Who knew it would be so fabulous?”
Susan Mackie said readers influenced the inclusion of tragedy: “I realised I had created a utopia-of-sorts and really, life isn’t always like that. Enter the Tragedy. There had to be one, to shake the readers up a bit. It had to be someone important. The second half was carried by how the characters reacted and a mid-life romance that readers adored.”
She also noted a new writing approach: “Earlier books were written from two POVs, but I chose to expand to eight POVs. I was terrified it wouldn’t work, yet here we are.”
Zoom Out
The RUBY Awards are presented annually by the Romantic Writers of Australia. They are regarded as the premier recognition for excellence in romance writing, judged by both readers and industry professionals across multiple categories.
What to look for next?
Susan Mackie is working on a Barrington novella for release at Christmas 2025 and a new trilogy set last century in a small town.