MBIFL 2027 preview: Meg Mason and the art of finding humour in life's difficult moments

Marriage, motherhood, mental health and the complicated business of being human are recurring concerns in Meg Mason’s fiction. The Australian author has a particular gift for finding humour in situations that are often painful, uncomfortable or difficult to explain. Her characters are rarely having an easy time of it, but Mason approaches their struggles with an empathy and wit that make their stories deeply relatable.

Her international breakthrough, Sorrow and Bliss, established her as a distinctive voice in contemporary fiction, balancing dark comedy with an unflinching portrayal of life with chronic mental illness.

Published in 2020, Sorrow and Bliss follows Martha, a woman struggling to understand her mental health while navigating a troubled marriage and complicated family relationships. Mason's ability to find humour in emotional distress, without making light of the suffering, became one of the novel's defining strengths. The book went on to become an international bestseller, was translated into more than 20 languages and won Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2022.

Born in New Zealand, Mason began her career in journalism, working for The Times in London before contributing to publications including The Financial Times, Vogue, Elle and GQ. Her early books include the motherhood memoir Say It Again in a Nice Voice (2012) and the novel You Be Mother (2017).

Her latest novel, Sophie, Standing There (2026), takes readers into the backstage world of literary festivals. Its protagonist, Sophie Pattison, works at literary events and develops an intense attachment to a celebrated author. Through Sophie, Mason explores loneliness, literary obsession, the relationship between readers and writers, and the search for human connection.

Interestingly, Sophie is a departure from the troubled protagonists associated with Mason's earlier fiction. The author has described her as naturally cheerful, kind and optimistic, challenging the tendency to label her work as 'sad girl fiction'.

Now based in Sydney, where she lives with her husband and two daughters, Mason continues to explore the contradictions of ordinary life through characters who are funny, flawed and unmistakably human. At MBIFL 2027, readers will have an opportunity to meet the writer whose fiction finds laughter in heartbreak and meaning in life's most uncomfortable truths.