Category: Issue Five
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Expectations
By Mohammad Ali Maleki* I dedicate this poem to the Manus Island detainees who have lost their lives. We have them all in our minds and will never forget them. Hey, Freedom. You are not colour You are not smell. You are not shadow. You are not sunshine. You are absolute darkness for me,…
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How could you do this to us?
By Christine Hill This essay won the 2017 Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition for Non fiction and was first published in Writers Victoria. I find myself in no-man’s-land – a large and largely empty space between freedom and detention. It has taken months of patient planning to get this far. Copies of passport, driver’s…
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Exile
By Michelle Cahill To ride the curved fronds of rain-splashed palms with nothing but exiled eyes, to cut through manacle vines. To moult like the sunburnt skin of a gum tree, wounds flayed exposing an ivory gleam. To drown in the truth of gardens, as rain glistens silver on a ripple of green. To feel…
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Public Statement by Humanities and Social Sciences Scholars on Australia’s
By Michele Seminara *A found poem sourced from a joint letter published in New Matilda on 10 Jul 2014. The letter was signed by 137 academics from across the globe and condemned the Australian Government’s treatment of refugees. (This poem was first published in ‘Writing to the Wire’ (UWA Publishing, 2016).) Artwork by Kathryn Lamont.
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Making a stand. By Isobelle Carmody
Tonight the air smelled of rain as I stood in King George Square for one hour, holding a sign over my head protesting the brutal bipartisan practice of off-shore detention. I have done this – somewhere in Australia or overseas – for more than 150 days, much of it consecutive. The question I am most…
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The Door Behind You
By Joshua Kepreotis. John left at night to walk all the way through the darkness and find a way to the fishing port town of Agia Pelagia by morning, when the boat was to arrive. He said an inglorious goodbye at the house to whoever in his family was there to see him off. His…
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Book review: Autonomy
Review by Abby Claridge. ‘ Only a woman can know the visceral desire to end a pregnancy she is experiencing against her will – no man… can ever understand this.’ My biggest struggle with reviewing this text was coming to terms with the fact that I would never be able to capture the profound effect this…
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Home
By Keren Heenan My sister’s only been back a week. We sit in the kitchen and I listen to her talk about the city; the street, the hospital where she’d worked, now hidden under rubble. ‘There’s an old man,’ she says, ‘his house just a shell now. But he still plays music, I heard him…
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Displaced.
by Kylie Adams We live in an age of unrest. We hate, we fight, we kill, and for what? Don’t we all want the same thing? A chance for freedom, peace, and equality? A place to call our own, where our children are safe, our government is transparent, and our society is treated fairly? Yet,…
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I was on the boat, now I am on the road.
By S. Nagaveeran (Ravi). I was on the boat now I am on the road. There wasn’t safety in my land and nothing free was in my hand I couldn’t walk freely and I couldn’t talk fairly so I seek the place where there is peace on earth I found the place and I landed…
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The Passenger
By Reece Pye He got on at Dandenong, of all places. I didn’t pay him much mind at first; I was already too deep in The Cider House Ruleswhen he came and sat next to me. He seemed just like any other passenger, except in the way he sat with his back facing me, his…
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As Good as Gold
by N L King Kim ignores her father’s voice. She scrolls down her Instagram feed and taps a witty reply to her Canadian friend, Stevie. ‘Kim[1].’ Kim sighs and closes her phone. Her father is in the dark lounge room watching Gardening Australia. Tomorrow Bo will have Kim planting whatever Peter Cundall has just…
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Interview with Anna Forsyth by Senaj Alijevski
It was a pleasure for our journals to get an opportunity to Interview Anne Forsyth. She’s a writer who is based in Newcastle and manages ‘Girls on key’. Girls on Key hosts events in Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney. The events started as music in 2014 and changed to poetry in 2015. They feature female and…
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Book review: Watermark by Joanna Atherfold Finn.
Reviewed by Angela Wauchop “She reads each word carefully and I follow along in my head. ‘“A particularly fine specimen,”’ she says, her finger drawing an imaginary line under the small print. It is so small that I have to lean in to make out the words. ‘What a strange way to describe her. Like…
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Book Review: ‘Every Note Played’.
Reviewed by Angela Wauchop “He loves women, appreciates them as much as any man, but ultimately they find themselves achingly hungry with him. And he refuses to feed them. His artistry for playing the piano seduces them. His lack of artistry as a man is why they leave.” American author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova is…
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Book review: Dying & Other Stories By Eugen Bacon
Reviewed by Angela Wauchop ‘Did you want me to teach you about galaxies and how a sprinkle of magic could keep them efficient? Did you want me to clap my hands and say: Look at this world. Isn’t it beautiful?’ Zhorr pressed his hands together. ‘This, my son, concludes our history session.’—A Maji Maji Chronicle Dying…
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Book review: Thirteen Wicked Tales
Review by Kathryn Lamont From alien planets to medieval battles, athletes to clones, Eugen Bacon and E. Don Harpe’s collection of literary speculative fiction, Thirteen Wicked Tales, tackles a wide variety of places, people and themes in thirteen bite sized pieces: easy for any book lover to devour on the go. While each tale is…
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Author interview with Isobelle Carmody.
By Skye Jenner. I first read one of Isobelle Carmody’s books when I was ten-years-old – actually, it was one of the first books that my Mum decided to lend me – Billy Thunder and the Night Gate. Ever since then, I have absolutely loved every story of hers that I have managed to get…
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Book Review: The Monster Apprentice
Reviewed by Ziqi Yue The Monster Apprenticeis a fantasy novel that explores the themes of courage, friendship and love. Written by Felicity Banks, a Canberra author specializing in fantasy and interactive fiction, the text includes captivating descriptions of mythical creatures, pirates, conflict and a young girl’s quest to save her home. The Monster Apprenticetells a…
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Book review: Jules Grant’s We Go Around in the Night and are Consumed by Fire
Reviewed by Angela Wauchop. “Knock people’s places down, just makes them cling on harder. Then you got people clinging on to dreams, and you can’t ever fight that. […] Cut something back just makes it grow thicker and faster, Carla says, but I guess no one ever told the police that.” We Go Around in…