Tag: fiction
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Crossing paths with both humour and loss: interview with James Colley.
James Colley explores how the light and darkness in people’s stories can bring a community together to achieve a collective purpose.
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Celestial Eclipse
By Isobel Hinds-Brooks. Science tells us that an eclipse is a moment where the sun and moon are perfectly aligned. However, many years ago, during a time of superstitions and “signs”, it was seen as a bad omen. The idea of one celestial somehow blocking the other was a sign of incoming Armageddon. Thankfully, this…
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Predetermine/Redetermine
A story about AI teachers, resisting destiny, and being different
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The Fog: Book Review.
Review by Stacey O’Carroll
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Lavender
The story is set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009), a brutal conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for an independent Tamil state.
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A Guest in the House of Illusion
A story of thwarted desire, set in an undefined past, at a villa on an island in the Aegean, amid a bohemian coterie dominated by Myrto, a brilliant, provocative, ageing libertine who is about to meet her downfall.
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Reaching for the stars
‘Everyone’s getting pretty antsy.
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After six o’clock.
This short story emerged from the act of trimming nails after 6 PM, a practice surrounded by Sri Lankan myth and familial wisdom.
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After the Apocalypse
It’s a cold morning, when a breath can be condensed by the chill and dark grey clouds cover the ground from sunlight.
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The Good News Call Centre.
How are you this blessed day?’
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Belburd: Book Review
Review by Stacey O’Carroll Author: Nardi Simpson Publisher: Hachette RRP: $32.99 Release Date: 25 September 2024 “The entire space was filled with the orange and cinnamon scent of warming mulled wine.” Is there anything more magical than when words dance and sing on the page? When they not only tell a story, they…
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Fumes
By Miles Boyle-Bryant There hadn’t been a roaring engine on the track in years. But tonight the racket of drunk voices in the viewing room echoed out into the darkness of the cracked asphalt that snaked away in the dust below. In the gloom, a lone silhouette plodded along the once iconic speedway, the…
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ID
By Srinjay Chakravarti Raven-black thunderheads, the first clouds of the year’s monsoon, scudded across the slate-grey sky. Sipra stood on the verandah of their little cottage, looking with shining eyes at the harbingers of June rain. Their last paddy crop had failed in the summer, and this was their only hope now for a…
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Things We Cannot Say
By Kylie A Hough For Karolina Nada Califano It’s a humid Monday evening when I rest my fingers on the metal handrail of the hospital bed and watch my grandmother sleep. Once, she was my everything. Now, looking at her lie there, I wonder if something ever really ends once it begins. Nonna stirs…
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Black Dog
By Jane Downing ‘Anjing?’ she said carefully. Her vocabulary was largely made up of nouns and she’d double-checked the word for dog before setting out. Her hand hovered at the height of her lost dog’s head as she spoke. She was overestimating in Max’s absence. The young woman behind the counter nodded politely and indicated…
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Book Review: Hadithi & The State of Black Speculative Fiction by Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis
Reviewed by Angela Wauchop “Death is easier in November—New Year around the corner. Come January, you set your mind to new thinking. You leave death with the year gone. Sucks in March; you have to live with death the whole year.” ‘Hadithi & The State of Black Speculative Fiction’ is the collaborative work of African-Australian…
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Perfect Day
By Mary Pomfret A sweet young summer, all those years ago. I hate you. Tumbling tears. I hate you, Fred. I wasn’t staring at her. Punching the air. Julia, you know I only love you. Liar. You’re a liar, Fred. Running off, not looking back. But later, just as the sun was setting on…
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The Upside of Divine Intervention
By Daniela Abriola I never cared for the story of God’s angels and Lucifer’s demons, though it wasn’t like it was told much in my house. Yet somehow, I – and everyone else in the world knew the tale. Angels and demons sent to earth to guide people along their destined path. Many people…
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When I Was Eight
By Kiara Ash When I was eight, I had a pet mouse. He was called Tiny, because, well, he was tiny. A white mouse with a brown spot on his bottom – my stinky best friend. Mum took me to the local pet shop where I had first fallen head over heels for mice,…
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Cheryl
By Sophie G. Whiting The washing was left out in the rain – sopping masses of denim and wool. We blamed it all on Cheryl. Mum constantly shuffles in her seat while she records videos with her whiteboard. Her natural environment was the classroom panopticon, fluttering from one tiny desk to another. But now,…