Honey My mother said I looked like a boiling pot of honey the way my face broke out when she talked about Jahannam. Gentle boys ruin in the fire too …
The Lumen Seed (Judith Crispin)
The Lumen Seed opens onto an apocalyptic scene. A hardwood mulga tree, reaching for the sky, holds a placard: “The Lord’s Return is Near”. In Coober Pedy, a curved handmade …
Pachinko Sunsets and Concrete Flamingos: poems by David Gilbey and Mark Roberts
Australian Studies Conference, Hachioji, Tokyo (David Gilbey) There are no seats on the shinkansen to Tokyo so I stand for 300 kilometres, suspended, at more than 200 kph, clambering the …
Darlinghurst Nights (Meera Atkinson)
The nights grew hotter and the air faintly sugary. Luna sensed a man just out of range. She waited. And while she waited, she read books from the library, sometimes …
The Anchoress (Robyn Cadwallader)
I had always wanted to be a jongleur, to leap from the shoulders of another, to fly and tumble, to dare myself in thin air with nothing but my arms …
He auditioned for Romeo (Tarion Keelan)
My life was becoming more and more real in this new world that I had found for myself, and some days even passed without me thinking of David. But when …
Departure Gate (Anthony Macris)
Christina’s gone. In the corner of the bedroom are the cardboard cartons to be sent on to Brisbane, where she’s gone to be with her family again. The day after …
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 …
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 …