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 …
Each morning (Louise Pine)
Each morning I get off the train at Spencer Street station to go to work. I’m part of the crowd that pours out of train carriages onto asphalt platforms, …
White Goods (David Cohen)
So you have a question for me? I hope it’s about white goods. You are no doubt aware that I specialise in washers and, to a lesser extent, dryers. Look …
Dear Dolly (David Finnigan)
Q. Dear Dolly, I am a fifteen-year-old. I have lots of guy friends but I have never had a boyfriend or been kissed. Do the pubes ever stop growing? A. …
18 play ideas from 2002 (David Finnigan)
1. the protagonist wakes up in the middle of the night and sees that the moon is too bright – that means the sun’s too bright – that means the …
ABORIGINES, SHARKS AND AUSTRALIAN ACCENTS: On Australian Writing (Jo Case)
At last year’s Adelaide Writers Festival, during a session on The Macquarie Anthology of Australian Literature, an impassioned argument broke out on the subject of Australian writing. Robert Dessaix declared …
What’s Updog? (Helena Pastor)
One night, washing up after dinner, I hear the click of the side-gate. A dark-haired figure lopes past the window and my husband calls out, ‘Joey’s here.’ My body …