Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your short story was published in the collection Ways of Being Here? I have commenced my PhD Candidature in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia, where I am examining the causes of peacebuilding policy failures in the […]

We are pleased to announce that Margaret River Press will be undertaking a collaboration with Singapore publisher Ethos Books to co-publish a collection of short stories in the third quarter of 2019. The anthology was initiated by writingWA and aims to help readers discover new literary voices and connect with stories beyond their own borders. […]

The Australian Short Story Festival returns to Perth, Western Australia, over the weekend of Friday 19th – Sunday 21st October 2018 at the Centre for Stories. Check out the full program here and make sure to purchase your tickets in advance. Co-founded by Margaret River Press and MidnightSun Publishing, the Festival is now in its third year. The […]

Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your short story was published in the collection Pigface and Other Stories? I’ve done some story readings for charity groups and for the 21st anniversary of Harry Potter (as Harry). My 10-minute play Binge has been shortlisted for the Hollywood Short and Sweet […]

Nicole’s ringtone: breezy and pointless as a puppy. I’ve been reduced to a ringtone and it’s demeaning. Anti-music, bereft of emotion. Brief and functional as giving yourself a big hand, if you know what I mean. Playing a solo on your intimate instrument, if you get my drift. Ringtones only exist for as long as […]

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi, I’m Natalie! I’m currently doing an internship at Margaret River Press as part of my university degree. I’m studying a double major of Professional Writing & Publishing and Japanese—which is a bit of a mouthful, so I usually stick to telling people one or the other. […]

My most sustained attempt to quit writing forever was in the mid-nineties. I’d completed a novel that was greeted with indifference by publishers and was courting self-pity. I’d been writing for two decades, experimenting with scripts, comedy skits and short stories for adults and children, but had met with little success. The sensible course of […]

Writers love to evoke music when eulogising their work. They talk of the “rhythm of language.” They want their prose to “sing”. They crave musical fluidity. Compiling a comprehensive bibliography of fiction influenced by music would be daunting. It would range from the breathless descriptions of jazz in Kerouac to the turgid treatises on classical […]

After deciding my novel, Earworm, would be a tale told by a love song, I set about conceiving the voice of my narrator. I wanted something urgent, funny and non-human. The language needed to be rhythmical and awash with musical allusion and imagery. The vocabulary should reference sounds and musical jargon. My narrator would indulge […]

In 1876, Mark Twain published a short comic piece entitled A Literary Nightmare (also known as Punch, Brothers, Punch!). In this fictionalised memoir, Twain describes reading a jaunty popular poem in a newspaper which then lodges in his head. The predominance of the repetitive rhythms and rhymes shred his concentration, rendering him incapable of writing. […]