Embodying the beginnings of Melbourne Grunge circa early nineties the stories in See Through come from the seminal self published collections Black, and Snakeskin/Vanilla.  Filled to the brim with stressed, working class characters who are running out of time, money and mental health, these people exist in the social margins and survive in the wastelands of the urban sprawl.  Boyack’s characters are shards of smashed mirror on a bathroom floor, reflect...

In his debut collection of poems Neil Boyack’s Self Help and Other Works digs deep into the trials of loyalty, the stink of lust, and the wounds of solitude. Boyack’s commitment to vulnerability is there for all to see and judge, as is his way. Heavily based in the operational and everyday he finds the hidden and the secret in the self deceptions and the anonymity of the dead fox, roads as long as sight, an argument on the beach, and in the ironies of a white Australia with a bla...

The Funeral Photographer is the first in a new series of Colin Cotterill short stories featuring his female news reporter and detective, Jimm Juree. Fans of Jimm know her from the four novels where, with the help of the members of her strange family, she usually solves the crime. Move over Miss Marple, Jimm Juree does it for the 21st Century.In this story, Jimm, exiled from the north of Thailand and just about surviving in the south, finds a new career by accident. Being Jimm, a cr...

A fascinating prize-winning novel about a house with a fanciful little turret, built by a river. Unfolding within its rooms are lives of event and emotional upheaval. A lot happens. And the tumultuous events of the twentieth century also leave their mark, from war to economic collapse, the deaths of presidents and princesses to new waves of music, art, architecture and political ideas. Meanwhile, a few metres away in the river, another creature follows a d...

What is the point of inventing stories when reality eclipses imagination? A little way off in the future, during a time of plague and profound social collapse, a group of friends escapes to a house in the country where they entertain themselves by playing music, eating, drinking and telling stories about their lives. There are tales of thieves and pirates, deaths and a surprise birth, a freak wave and many other stories of misadventure resulting in unexpected felicity. The Deck bo...

The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its eighth year.Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This new series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere. The editor's brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking for the ...

These are not, I should say at the outset, tales written for the benefit of good and well-behaved girls who always stick to the path when they go to Grandma's. Skipping along in their gingham frills - basket of scones, jam and clotted cream upon their arms - what need can these girls have for caution? Rather, these are tales for girls who have boots as stout as their hearts, and who are prepared to firmly lace them up (boots and hearts both) and step out into the wilds in search of wha...

Here, between the realms of the Sky Father and Earth Mother, hellhounds race, ghosts drift aimless, and the taniwha stalks. Home fires drive them back, at the same time sparking stories and poems that traverse seconds, eons, and parsecs. Tales of gatekeepers, cloak wearers, and secret keepers. Of pigs with AK-47s or ruby-hued eyes, of love-struck moa, and unruly reflections. Stark truths, and beautiful possibilities…* WINNER * Sir Julius Vogel Award 2019 (SFFANZ) for Best C...

‘Things I Did for Money is a collection of exciting and imaginative stories from one of our most innovative writers. This is a book for readers hungry for a highly original voice.’ — Tony BirchA man’s fury at his neighbour is reversed by strange nightmares. A young woman with a grudge finds a discarded weapon. A hunt for sunken treasure brings two scuba divers to the brink of tragedy.Drawing us into worlds both surreal and familiar, Things I Di...

The perfect murder? This short story romp about lust for money, hatred of the one who provides it and getting away with murder (and the money) is a fiction must read for murder buffs.This short fiction story from "Australia's Queen of True Crime", Robin Bowles, brings her many years of experience investigating and writing about crime to the crime fiction genre with a short and exciting story.

A fragmentary account of life and its complexities, I said the sea was folded charts the first three years of Erik Jensen’s relationship with his partner, Evelyn Ida Morris. These are love poems, written against the difficulty of understanding another person. They are startling in their simplicity and their frankness.‘ A full, honest, brave, overflowing heart. Australia has her Emily Dickinson.’ —Kate Jennings

Equally nostalgic yet nightmarish, Lime Pickled is a short story collection set in a fictional Malaysia on the murky themes of exploitation, ecological damage, poverty, abuse and loss.Nefarious characters interact with the oppressed in the richly-textured familiar and amoral setting of modern Asia. Marc de Faoite's storytelling, gritty, yet detached, hints at traditional folklore with a brush of Zola's naturalism. Dark, surreal, heartwarming and funny, the range in...