Past Contributors
September 5, 2016
Clare Millar studies creative writing / literature and professional writing / editing at Swinburne University. She’s part of the...
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Margaret Marchant lives in Adelaide, South Australia and is currently studying for Masters of Arts (Writing) at Swinburne University. When...
Issue Two
By Dr Jacqueline Ross This second edition of Backstory gives Swinburne students an opportunity to see their work published and a reach an...
Fiction • Issue Two
By Arianne James We arrive at winter’s onset. I upon an open-aired milk truck, Lionel riding close behind. The downpour strikes...
By Kate Wann The following story is based on fact. All the quotes are directly taken from the diary of Lucy Daw 1915. Except for a...
By John Whitehall King Jayavarman’s waning virility was not surprising. The royal serpent had raised its head to strike so many...
John Frederick Whitehall suffers from chronic wanderlust. Treatment for this syndrome has taken him to over fifty countries but, as yet, a...
By Vashti Farrer LETTER from: Earl Bathurst to Governor Darling. Downing Street, 17th August, 1825. Sir,...
Tamasine Loves is a 23-year-old emerging writer from the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s outer-east. Born into a book-loving family,...
Issue Two • Poetry
By Eloise Faichney Flaubert recognised my love, tender and whole, and it made him sad. ‘I forsee that I shall make you...
Kate has a back ground in journalism and in the health sector. She has written for a health magazine for 5 years before doing her...
By Wendy Dunn Can poetry die When words mark meaning On a page? No Not simply mark But explode Into architecture Imaginary gardens...
By Vashti Farrer On the corner stood a house. Unloved, its weathered weatherboard. But now a wire fence surrounds the lot. No planks...
By Clare Millar 416,809 enlisted 156,000 wounded, gassed, taken prisoner 62,000 killed Preheat a war. Line countries with armies....
By Margaret Marchant Once tall proud men Remembering those who went before them Marching for those who cannot and those left behind...
Interviews • Issue Two
By Jac Mason and Ana-Teona Tinc The walls were lined with books, stacked up higher than any of us could reach. Alex stood and turned his...
By James Palmer Before screens colonised the world, performances were exclusive to live production. Yet the advent of film and television...
By Tamasine Loves Historical fiction is a genre with roots as deep as the storytelling tradition itself. And to the modern day, we...
Issue Two • Reviews
Reviewed by Professor Josie Arnold I read this as a biography of the William, Anne and Hanoverian years in England that saw the...
Review by Tina Tsironis Throw a number of interconnected characters together, add a dash of mental complexity to each, sprinkle with a...
Review by Abby Claridge ‘That was well done, my lady,’ Aksel said softly in his newly deep voice. ‘Dignified,’ she told him,...
Review by Sarah Giles ‘To this day I have no tears; that is one of the symptoms of being a Holocaust survivor…’ p. 147. ‘The...
September 3, 2016
Arianne James is a writer of fiction and a lover of words, books, people, long conversations, eavesdropping, music, stars, cats and many...
Issue Nine Contributors • Past Contributors
August 25, 2016
Vashti Farrer has worked as a copywriter, research librarian, encyclopaedia researcher, creative writing tutor, short story judge,...
Issue One
May 24, 2016
This journal provides Swinburne writers with a global publication outlet that brings their talents to the world. These stories, review,...
Fiction • Issue One
May 23, 2016
By Rachael Palmer Cyprus 1958 March Tilly stepped off the plane into bright sunshine at Nicosia Airport. She bumped baby Beth higher on her...
Fiction • Issue One • Issues
By Eugen Bacon Maji! Maji! Myth or legend Or a scheme of fads, ideas embedded One battle, one struggle. Freedom! Freedom! Painted...
By Kirsty Seebeck The boy rested against a sun-warmed rock, watching the sheep browse through the scrubby grass, as early summer insects...
By Helen F Miller The year is 1902 and Australian women now have the right to vote and be elected, but that has little if any impact...
Issue One • Issues • Poetry
By MA Fox White columns reach towards the heavens under the moon’s rays. The gods are now home sitting in judgement...