Delicacy has never been my particular strength, but, for all that, I don’t see how it can be said that the incident at the funeral was entirely my fault. I …
Song (Pseudonymous Jones)
In a dream, Batman and Bernini’s St Theresa walked on a long green carpet that stretched across a wide and empty piazza. In the distance the colonnades were filled with …
A Moment of Falling (Andrea Goldsmith)
Jack has been hopelessly in love with Ava since they met at university at the age of 18. He is now in his mid-forties. Until the meeting in the excerpt …
You Were Lost Within My Sights (Lara S. Williams)
We flattened ourselves between the soupy heat shimmer and sharp yellow stalks running down the hill toward Cooma Presbyterian Church. Ants made ladders of our ankles, leaving bubble bites in …
Reply to a Letter (Wayne Macauley)
You asked me about Witton, I’ll tell you as much as I know. I’ve had him on my books now for a little over five years though the act …
The Chinese Lesson (Ryan O’Neill)
In the park, the old women were walking backwards. Watt waited beneath the enormous statue of a twenty metre rifle grasped in a clenched stone fist. It was as if …
A matter of balance (Vicki Thornton)
She pauses before going outside. Always she pauses. Wonders if this is good or right yet knowing it is necessary. She steps outside, shuts the door firmly behind her. Tiny …
Leaving Leisureland (Miles Allinson)
When they came to the door I was in the kitchen, weighing the evidence against a fly that was trapped behind part of the open window. I could use …
My Father’s Body in Nine Drawings (Francesca Rendle-Short)
1 My father is not yet dead. People who knew him say there is a likeness in this drawing. I can still see him breathing, can you? I still …
Blood (Simonne Michelle-Wells)
After twelve years of marriage his fishing hat, which sits forgotten on my armoire, is all that remains. The house creaks and groans, trying to establish a new order. The …