Backstory Author

Review of Harlequins Riddle by Rachel Nightingale

Review by Joe Bosa “There is a moment, just before the dreamer stirs, when the mysteries of the world offer up their meanings. There is...

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Review of Jack of Spades by Sophie Masson

Review by Jessica Forth It is not often that a book opens is narrative with the call to action on it’s first page. It is also unusual...

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Janice Simpson

Janice Simpson is a part-time PhD candidate at RMIT University in the School of Media and Communication, who has completed her Confirmation...

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Taking the children away: what have we learnt from past Australian practices when children were removed from their families?

By Janice Simpson Introduction As a nation, we have taken lessons from what occurred in the past. We have outlawed baby farming, a practice...

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Samuel Elliott

Samuel Elliott is a Sydney-based freelance literary and entertainment reporter. Having previously regularly appeared in premier digital...

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‘Falling Pomegranate Seeds’ by Wendy J. Dunn

Review by Sarah Giles “All of us must walk our own roads, but ‘tis wrong to prevent women from walking to many roads just because...

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Professor Josie Arnold

Dr. Josie Arnold is Professor of Writing. She developed the MA(Writing) online course and the PhD by Artefact & Exegesis for creative...

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Dr Jacqueline Ross

Dr Jacqueline Ross is a widely published author of fiction and non-fiction. She has written for both children and adults. Jacqueline is...

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Clare Millar

Clare Millar studies creative writing / literature and professional writing / editing at Swinburne University. She’s part of the...

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Margaret Marchant

Margaret Marchant lives in Adelaide, South Australia and is currently studying for Masters of Arts (Writing) at Swinburne University. When...

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Editorial – 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...

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Prelude to Dawn

By Arianne James   We arrive at winter’s onset. I upon an open-aired milk truck, Lionel riding close behind. The downpour strikes...

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Lucy’s War

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...

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Dinosaurs: An Alternate Ending

By John Whitehall King Jayavarman’s waning virility was not surprising. The royal serpent had raised its head to strike so many...

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John Whitehall

John Frederick Whitehall suffers from chronic wanderlust. Treatment for this syndrome has taken him to over fifty countries but, as yet, a...

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Had as Leif Control

By Vashti Farrer   LETTER from: Earl Bathurst to Governor Darling.   Downing Street, 17th August, 1825. Sir,...

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Tamasine Loves

Tamasine Loves is a 23-year-old emerging writer from the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s outer-east. Born into a book-loving family,...

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Bovary

By Eloise Faichney   Flaubert recognised my love, tender and whole, and it made him sad.   ‘I forsee that I shall make you...

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Kate Wann

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...

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Once and Future

By Wendy Dunn   Can poetry die When words mark meaning On a page? No Not simply mark But explode Into architecture Imaginary gardens...

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Outline

By Vashti Farrer   On the corner stood a house. Unloved, its weathered weatherboard. But now a wire fence surrounds the lot. No planks...

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Identity (A Recipe of Crumbs)

By Clare Millar   416,809 enlisted 156,000 wounded, gassed, taken prisoner 62,000 killed Preheat a war. Line countries with armies....

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Reflections of an Anzac Day March

By Margaret Marchant   Once tall proud men Remembering those who went before them Marching for those who cannot and those left behind...

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Interview with Alex Miller

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...

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Interview with Dr Ron Elisha

By James Palmer Before screens colonised the world, performances were exclusive to live production. Yet the advent of film and television...

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Interview with C.W. Gortner

By Tamasine Loves   Historical fiction is a genre with roots as deep as the storytelling tradition itself. And to the modern day, we...

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‘The History of England. Volume IV: Revolution’ by Peter Ackroyd

Reviewed by Professor Josie Arnold   I read this as a biography of the William, Anne and Hanoverian years in England that saw the...

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‘Call to Juno’ by Elisabeth Storrs

Review by Tina Tsironis Throw a number of interconnected characters together, add a dash of mental complexity to each, sprinkle with a...

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‘The Constant Queen’ by Joanna Courtney

Review by Abby Claridge   ‘That was well done, my lady,’ Aksel said softly in his newly deep voice. ‘Dignified,’ she told him,...

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‘The Pedigreed Jew: between There and Here – Kovno and Israel’ by Safira Rapoport

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...

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