Issue Four • Poetry
December 9, 2017
To commemorate the Official State Visit to Australia 2017 by Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, we are deeply honoured and grateful...
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Fiction • Issue Four
December 6, 2017
By Errol Bishop James McFarlane eagerly absorbed the sights and sounds of Australia as the ship made its way up the Mary River,...
By Chris Childs I try not to retch at the sickening stench of boiled cabbage. The queue is moving slowly, but no one complains....
By Denise Ogilvie Caen station fills with tourists, all jostling for seats on the train to Pontorson. The July morning is warm,...
By Lauren Chater Carr House, Lancashire 1639 Eliza Stone was hot. Moisture pricked beneath her arms. A bead of sweat inched its way...
By Eleanor Limprecht He woke at the usual time, before dawn. Andrew closed his eyes again, pulling the coverlet beneath his chin. When he...
By Chris Childs I wake coated in cold sweat, my throat dry and raw. For a moment I don’t remember where I am. Then reality flashes...
By Belinda Lyons-Lee She stood in the octagonal room where she could see, as if in the middle of a spiders web, through the...
By Tess Barry Out of her twig-filled lungs a strong wind whirls she is a small stream obstructed a standing body...
By Tess Barry Eat lemon altogether, she says, cold go out. What you play? Luna Sonata? My fevered fingers stumble through...
(Bridget Cox Bishop, 1848-1912) By Geoff Budden J Cox and his five sons lost in their boat off the Harbor April 24, 1859....
By Geoff Budden At home in taverns, not in homes, you left when your daughter was four years old. Your own final home was a needle...
By Dr Wendy J Dunn Lest we forget The First World War They said Ground soaked With blood With countless dead Lest we forget Another...
By Jordan King-Lacroix I. On a leaky boat, they came, needing to change their name once, in the village to sound less Jewish...
By Jordan King-Lacroix The clouds, ha! The clouds! Did you see them when they passed overhead? So slow, like molasses,...
By Eleanor Hooker Ghost me. Fossil me. ...
By Nathanael O’Reilly In a centuries-old English church where Jane Austen worshipped, my daughter performs her role on the steps...
By Kenneth Pobo My grandmother’s house, weathered, a dirt driveway. When I visit she makes a cherry pie. I help her pit. She tells...
By Jonathan Greenwood This palace, ’tis a thing of splendour and class With chimneys of pepperpot and weathervanes of brass;...
By Anne Casey A penny in a new purse (that it may never be empty) The Child of Prague left out all night (to bring a dry day for the...
Issue Four • Non-Fiction
By Diane Murray In 2007, I set out to write the biography of Marion Leathem, who operated the Molong Express and Western District...
By Cheryl Hayden Introduction In the latter part of the 20th Century, a new historiography emerged through the University of Exeter...
By Glenice Whitting There once was a drummer who’s name was Oskar, who lost his mother who ate too much fish. There once was...
Interviews • Issue Four
By Oscar O’Neill-Pugh and Senaj Alijevski The subeditors at Backstory were fortunate to be able to interview Justin Sheedy, an author...
By Gillian Polack History and the past give us cultural tools. They help us interpret our world. Novels use history and create...
Fiction • Issue Three
June 17, 2017
By Judy Rigby They threw my children overboard. That’s what the doctor tells me, but I know it isn’t true. They are here with me in the...
By Amanda Pearson Midday, Wednesday 2 February 1994. We gather. An unlikely group, our papery skins nearly transparent, eyes watery,...
By Amanda Pearson November 1914 Harold enlisted last week. He made the three-hour journey up to Adelaide by train and joined the army. I...
By Louise Hopewell Edie had only just made it along the driveway and out onto the footpath, but already her bunions were rubbing...
By Chris Childs Werribee Park, Victoria, Australia 25 June 1887 ‘Careful, Constable that might be important evidence!’ ...
