out now with Pink Shorts Press

‘There was no use googling am I cursed because the search engine algorithm would always say yes.’

Olivia was named after a lycra-clad singer her parents saw on Rage. As a child, she lost the ability to speak and spent a year barking like a dog. Her Gong Gong bought her a yellow bird in a shoebox from the Adelaide Central Markets. Her heart was broken by a guitar teacher after a school disco. She started university and learnt to run and travelled to Guangzhou for her cousin’s wedding. 

In her brutally funny, genre-defying debut, Olivia De Zilva collects stories on shelves: neat coming-of-age anecdotes and sitcom characters trapped behind glass. 

Then she breaks it all apart. 

Plastic Budgie questions how our memories and families form us, in a way that is both unapologetically sentimental and eternally surprising. It is full of itchy Y2K nostalgia, curses and glimpses of birds.

Available to purchase at Pink Shorts Press and all major retailers. Photos by Ben Matera.

Praise for Plastic Budgie

‘De Zilva is a marvellous writer, effortlessly funny and yet able to pull off heartrending and meaningful scenes. Definitely a talent to watch‘ – Matthew Hooton, author of Deloume Road, Typhoon Kingdom and Everything Lost, Everything Found

‘Bursting with early 2000s pop-culture references, De Zilva’s writing is laced with dark wit and is emotionally devastating in equal measure; she has a voice that is bold, bright and steeped in complicated nostalgia’ – Books+Publishing

‘A searching and companionable coming-of-age story that combines vulnerability and restraint, directness and discretion. Olivia De Zilva writes about loneliness and disruption with great humour and sensitivity‘ –
Shannon Burns, author of Childhood

‘De Zilva proves herself as a literary force and pushes the boundaries of fiction and memoir. She bravely puts forward a novel form which explores the good and bad parts within us. This is the kind of voice we need in literature and I urge you to pick it up, for the exploration of cultural identity, for your inner lonely child, and especially for the ABC Kids references‘ –
Grace Gooda, Readings

‘An achingly funny and inventive novel’
Australian Women’s Weekly

‘De Zilva undoubtedly has a powerful, unique voice. For a debut, this is polished, well-realised and deftly woven together. I look forward to seeing where her literary career will take her next.’
Elaine Chennatt, Aniko Press

‘A superb read and suitable for many audiences’
Rebecca Wu, Glam Adelaide

‘Some readers of Plastic Budgie may miss the cohesion of earlier waves of creative non-fiction; others may be heartened that Asian-diasporic experience has moved sufficiently towards the centre that attention can now be focussed on questions of self-representation and the implications of how we tell a story.‘
Fernanda Dahlstrom, Mascara Literary Review

‘This is the most exciting new Australian voice I’ve discovered this year‘
Jo Case, Senior Deputy Books + Ideas editor The Conversation

‘I loved the form of this book, which builds things up in layers and then slices through its own foundations. It’s both very clever and very funny.’
Farrin Foster, Editor Splinter Journal

‘There’s a sass and a sardonic tone here that’s equal parts Nora Ephron and Lynne Tillman. De Zilva has the native talent of the true writer: an eye for when the comedy writes itself. At first it’s funny. Then it’s increasingly disquieting, a scalpel concealed in a juicy apple…  Fear and loathing and loneliness have never been this much fun.’
Declan Fry, ABC best books of 2025

‘Plastic Budgie is a raw and funny autofiction, filled with Y2K nostalgia that will have you itching for your youth and glad to be rid of it.’
Readings, 2025 Australian Debut Highlights