Tigest Girma: ‘I was like – Hey, do you want black vampires? And they were like – Yeah, we want’

The Melbourne writer topped the New York Times bestseller list with her debut fantasy novel – but that doesn’t stop doubt creeping in

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Docklands critics have long called Melbourne’s port turned waterside suburb soulless. But for Tigest Girma it’s where her seductive ideas about vampires, university drama and Ethiopian mythology percolate.

When characters for Girma’s bestselling fantasy books aren’t “doing what I want them to do” she comes down to the water for a break and imagines the scene from their perspective. “The calming water can spark ideas for me sometimes when I’m really stuck,” she says as we begin our late-afternoon stroll.