I Ghosts shift by the road in the moonlight, standing in line, alert. A collision with a kangaroo is not only unpalatable to the kangaroo but is expensive to the …
Eight Rules for Making Fire (Shane Strange)
I watch him through the kitchen window as he cuts the wood, outside, in the cold morning. He has his back to me. I watch as he braces his …
Do You Remember? (Laurie Steed)
It’s fifteen years since the accident and the guy who fell off the ute is back on track. He’s got a job at DPC and has coffee-drinking competitions with a …
The World-Swimmers (Patrick West)
For days now you have been driving across unbroken grassland, which you know you’ll never be able to leave behind forever, no matter how fast you might go, or …
What it’s like to want to write when all they want is for you to sing (JL Shenstone)
There came a time in my life when I had to face the fact that I was never going to relate to most of the population. They go to work, …
The Pre-Dentist Not Wearing Red (Lara S. Williams)
She says she will soon be a dentist. She likes teeth and is fascinated with their decay. At the Canada Bay Private benefit she attracts a crowd of followers who, …
Guns N'Coffee (A.S. Patric)
I work in the middle of the damned city. I start when every other son-of-a-bitch is about to clock-in as well. It doesn’t matter where I go, I can’t get …
One Day in English (Francesca Rendle-Short)
One day in English things did go haywire. The teachers must have known exactly who Glory was the day she arrived. News would have travelled fast around the staffroom …
EXPLAINING BEES: an interview with Wayne Macauley
RYAN O’NEILL A few years ago you made a comment about Australian short stories that could be just as well applied to Australian novels, namely that ‘the stuff that gets …
Bicycle (Les Zigomanis)
‘You’re stressed,’ my GP told me following a check-up. ‘Is there anything bothering you?’ Bothering me? Hmmm. Let me see. Relationship in the shitter, no social life, and work …