Issues

Book Review of GS Johnston’s Sweet Bitter Cane

Reviewed by Angela Wauchop “The war had left them idle. Each bomb and bullet and bayonet had torn the fabric of the village to ribbons,...

Read More

Swansong

by Wendy J. Dunn The nurse bends over Dad with her stethoscope and listens to his heartbeat. ‘Not long now,’ she mutters under her...

Read More

The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World.

Reviewed by Brittney Alexander.   Gareth Russell’s book, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World, addresses the sinking of the...

Read More

THE “EARL CORNWALLIS”

By Bill Cotter, Between 1788 and 1840, twelve thousand women were transported, usually for minor offences, to New South Wales.   Oh,...

Read More

Matrimonies

By Stuart Barnes     This poem was previously published in Glasshouses (UQP 2016)...

Read More

no angel

By Magi Gibson   she was nine and half her milk teeth gone because she’d kissed the boys behind the shed And she listened in on big...

Read More

TWO POEMS BY SULPICIA

Translated by Melinda Smith   V: From my sick bed Sulpicia 5 (Tibullus 3, 17)   Cerinthus, will you keep faith with your girl now...

Read More

Recipes for the Disaster

Reviewed by Michael Aiken Gareth Jenkins’ Recipes for the Disaster (Five Islands 2019) reads like a series of rituals or incantations,...

Read More

Moya Roddy

Moya Roddy’s novel The Long Way Home was described in the Irish Times as “simply brilliant”.  Her collection of short stories Other...

Read More

Richard James Allen

Interviewed by Samuel Elliott. Richard James Allen is an Australian born poet whose writinghas appeared widely in journals, anthologies,...

Read More

ERNIE ECOB AS A BARE-BELLIED JOE

By Melinda Smith ‘Women only want to be shearers for the sex’ — Ernie Ecob, former Secretary, Australian Workers’ Union   She...

Read More

safe hands

By Philip Porter,   She falls into her father’s arms from various heights: This was the light that held her darknesses from her....

Read More

Laura Wild

Poorly navigating the internet one LiveLeak video at a time, Laura Wild is an Australian writer currently studying at Swinburne University...

Read More

Tuam Lullaby

By Gary McCartney     Hush, Macushla, time to sleep The night is getting colder Pray the Lord your soul to keep For you’ll...

Read More

Someone to talk to

by Wendy Wicks   She is standing in the doorway examining him. His eyes were still grey. She remembered when they first met. Those...

Read More

Mark Mulholland

Mark Mulholland was born and raised in Ireland, and when fifteen underwent a stroke of genius and left schooling to linger around a...

Read More

Nigel Featherstone

by Samuel Elliott   About the author… Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer who has been published widely. His works include...

Read More

Metamorphosis

By Anita Patel (in memory of Maria Sibylla Merian – 1647 -1717)   It is not natural for a young girl to gaze at insects night...

Read More

Michele Seminara

Michele Seminara is a poet, editor and yoga teacher. After studying English and Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, she...

Read More

Jerilderie

By Nathanael O’Reilly   Eat a counter lunch of lamb shanks, salad and chips at the Royal Mail Hotel in the room where the Kelly...

Read More

Karen Lethlean

Karen Lethlean is a retired English teacher. With fiction which has appeared in the Barbaric Yawp, Ken*Again, Pendulum Papers and has won a...

Read More

Cockle Picking

By Amanda Bell   Look first for an open cockle shell, spreadeagled on the damp part of the strand, then, with your fingers, form a...

Read More

Woven in the Bone

By Audrey Molloy   And all this time, was anyone keeping account?      Light from Light, true God from true God, Child-years lost...

Read More

As woman surface

By Ellen Shelley   You watch as shadows wear you as ink dries hard up inside the stone.   Tombs collapse with their dialect of...

Read More

I Speak

By Chad Norman, Remembering Kenneth Patchen, but written for those war and politics uproot.   I speak because I can because I can use...

Read More

Wendy Wicks

I dropped out of my first degree. After 12 years, which included a marriage and kids, I went back to study and became in time, a radio...

Read More

Sven Doedens

Sven was born and raised in Hobart with three younger brothers. His childhood mostly included playing sports and travelling overseas during...

Read More

Juliana Curr 1835, 2 years, 10 months, 14 days

By Rose Lucas Highfield House, home of the Van Diemen’s Land Company Manager, Stanley Tasmania    ...

Read More

‘The Bridge’ by Enza Gandolfo

Review by Caitlin Bowen Enza Gandolfo is an Australian writer whose latest novel, ‘The Bridge’ delves deep into the circumstances that...

Read More

The Brides

By Jane Downing   Tilly heard the shouting but not the words. She pulled herself out of the fireplace and listened. Good. The...

Read More