“Brammer writes with grace and heart about the complicated and complex world of grief… Despite the heavy subject, though, Brammer’s debut is never dark or hopeless…[and] is ultimately a beautiful story of belonging and connection and, cliché though it may sound, what it really means to live life to its fullest.” — Shelf Awareness

Mikki Brammer is writer from Tasmania, Australia, who is now based in New York City via France and Spain.

Her debut novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover has so far been published in 26 languages and territories. It was a Book of the Month pick for May 2023, was named a Best Book of Summer 2023 by the New York Times and a Best Book of 2023 by NPR, and was also nominated for the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Debut and Best Fiction.

In addition to fiction, Mikki writes about architecture, art, and design for publications including Architectural Digest, Dwell, ELLE Decor, Luxe Interiors + Design, and Metropolis.

Mikki's Featured Titles

The Collected Regrets of Clover: A Novel

St. Martin’s Press |
Literary Fiction

Named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR

“This weird, lovely and sweetly satisfying novel [is] engaging and accessible…Clover’s emergence from a shuttered life is moving enough to elicit tears, and Brammer’s take on death and grieving is profound enough to feel genuinely instructional.” 
––The New York Times Book Review

What’s the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can’t give yourself a beautiful life?

From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story––and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover is perfect for readers of The Midnight Library and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as it turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.

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Why Regret is (Sometimes) A Good Thing

While researching my novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover, it struck me how simple the regrets are that most people have at the end of their lives and how easily they might have been able to resolve them had they taken the time to consider them earlier. This talk explores how regrets can be a positive thing, so long as we take the time to consider them before it’s too late.

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I Was Afraid of Death—So I Immersed Myself in It

Ever since I was a child, I had an intense fear of death and avoided everything about it—books, movies, conversations. But when I got to my thirties, I decided it was time to get curious about that fear, so I challenged myself to immerse myself in the topic instead. This talk explores that journey and how I came to understand the root of my fear and overcome it—and what I learned about living a beautiful life along the way.

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Turning Your Biggest Fear into Your Creative Work

This craft talk explores how I confronted my fear of death by reframing my relationship to it—and how that led to my debut novel. It would encourage the audience to consider their own fears and how they might channel them into creativity.

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Making New Friends As Adults: Why It’s Hard, But Doesn't Have to Be

Despite the fact that we’re living in one another’s pockets, loneliness and social isolation is an epidemic, especially in big cities. Adults are finding it increasingly difficult to make new friends and connect with people. As someone who has moved many times in her adult life across Australia, Canada, France, and the USA, this talk explores what I’ve observed about having to start building a community from scratch each time, and how to make it easier.

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Making the Taboo Palatable

Using my process for The Collected Regrets of Clover as an example, this craft talk explores how to make traditionally taboo/avoided topics such as death more accessible and engaging, identifying specific reframing techniques.

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Place as Character: Writing Interiors and Architecture in Fiction

Based on my fifteen years of experience as a journalist writing about architecture, art, design, and travel, this craft talk explores techniques for vividly capturing and describing interiors, architecture, and landscapes in novel writing so that the setting becomes a character in itself.

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Book Talk: The Collected Regrets of Clover

A talk on my journey in writing my debut novel, and how it went from being a seed of an idea to eventually being published in more than 25 languages. It explores how it forced me to face my own fear of death, what it was like to be writing a novel about death while at the epicenter of a global pandemic, the challenge of writing a ‘happy and uplifting’ book about death, what I learned from the regrets of others, and how it changed my approach to grief and comforting those who are grieving.

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The Secret to A Beautiful Life

In The Collected Regrets of Clover, a key character tells Clover, the protagonist, that the secret to having a beautiful death is to live a beautiful life—making mistakes, putting your heart out there, letting it get broken. This talk explores those themes and how to take stock of the life you’re currently living, perhaps inspiring you to be ‘cautiously reckless’ in the process.

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The Antidote to Anticipatory Grief

While writing my novel, I realized that my anxiety about death wasn’t about my own, but the anticipatory grief of losing my loved ones—particularly my mother. This talk explores how I set about finding an “antidote” to that anticipatory grief. What makes grief harder is all the things left unsaid with a loved one. So I offered my mother a proposition: on our weekly calls, what if we made a rule that we could ask each other about anything in our lives, no matter how personal. And that’s how I began to see her through a new lens: not just as my mother, but as a woman and a human being.

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Creating Psychological Profiles for Your Characters

This craft talk guides writers through the process of creating psychological profiles for each of their characters in order to achieve more depth and intrigue. Participants can create, discuss, and receive feedback on example profiles as part of an interactive workshop.

Mikki’s Events

Mikki’s Newsletter

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Named a Best Book of Summer 2023 by The New York Times Book Review
Named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR
Nominated for Book of the Month Club’s Book of the Year 2023
Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2023 for Best Book and Best Debut
Received a Kirkus Starred Review
Published in 26 languages and territories

Media clips

The New York Times | Best Books of Summer 2023

NPR | Best Books of 2023

Kirkus | Starred Review

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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