The Great Leap Forward by Keren Heenan The inspiration for my story in Joiner Bay, ‘Oh, the Water,’ came from listening to the Van Morrison song, ‘And It Stoned Me’. The feel-good nature of the song, the nostalgia and space it conjured, I wanted to replicate that in a short story. Not necessarily to rewrite […]

Joiner Bay and other stories Launch Speech by LianLow Readings, Carlton – Friday 14 July 2017 Writing stories requires courage and conviction that our stories are important and urgent to share with the rest of the world. Not only do competitions provide a platform for writers, they also act as a deadline for writers to […]

Sophie and her paternal grandfather who had the ‘good war’. The Resilience of a Generation by Sophie McClelland Resilience is a topic that has been on my mind for a while. One of my earliest memories – I can’t have been much older than four – was of feeling the glass inside my grandmother’s arm; […]

A Day in the Life with John Jenkins I live on Melbourne’s rural outskirts, close to middle stretches of the Yarra River, on a horse property of 20 acres, close to the famed Yarra Valley, a premier wine-growing area of Victoria. My suburb of Kangaroo Ground is aptly named, as up to 60 kangaroos hop […]

Ah yes, I remember it well; that glorious ten minutes or so when an opening line which had perplexed me for a couple of years suddenly revealed itself as a fully-formed story. I remember it with clarity because it was a unique experience. Stephen King says writing stories is like archaeology: we dig and brush […]

In early June, I flew from Brisbane to Western Australia. I had won the Margaret River Short Story Competition and was invited to the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival. Our panel, about the collection Joiner Bay and other stories, was at lunchtime on the Saturday with a small but friendly audience. Emily Paull, Leslie_Thiele […]

Strong. Brave. Paralysed. My brother says ‘You were always strong, brave. I looked up to that. I still do.’ Honestly, I had no idea. On the inside, it always just feels like a pragmatic weighing up of options and going with the one that will let me sleep at night. I reveal to a new […]

The short story has been called the ideal literary form for the 21st Century. The internet has given us access to multiple online journals and podcasts, so we can read a short story on our phones on the train to work, or pop in our earphones and listen to someone reading their story while we […]

Sit, stay. I stayed at Varuna, the Writers House in the Blue Mountains for two weeks in the middle of autumn. When telling friends about my fortnight there, I feel like I’ve emphasised the food angle quite a bit. I reckon I’ve said a lot about the biscuits, the fresh peaches, the homemade curries and […]

Finding my writing community By Gail Chrisfield When my copy of Joiner Bay and Other Stories arrived, I left the padded envelope unopened on the hall table while I changed, briefed my partner about my work day and played with our two excited little dogs. Then I was ready for the moment I had been […]