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Australian orders, 1 book $5.50, 2 or more $10
Overseas orders, 1 book $12, 2 books $18, 3 books or more $20.
In Adelaide, Ginninderra Press books are available at East Avenue Books, 53 East Avenue, Clarence Park 5034.
Ahmed Adam
Fish from the Sky
Follows Lara Jaq, a young Sudanese woman, as she travels through the gates of a refugee camp into a surreal world where fish fall to the earth and nothing seems to go right - until she gives up on waiting for things to happen...
1 74027 333 8, 57pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ian Alexander
Second Son
He is just one of many in the refugee camp: an old man, his wife dead, compelled to revisit the past. Unfortunately, what he finds is what he had known all along.
It is the only story there is, ever since God looked with favour on Abel and not on Cain: Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated; Ishmael is sent out into the desert, while Isaac becomes the heir; Solomon's older brother must die before he can be born to rule. The first-born dies, the second inherits: he should not have been surprised. Inherits what? I never thought to ask.
It was never going to be easy being Jesus's younger brother, especially when the woman you love only has eyes for him. Just ask Judas, the Second Son.
978 1 74017 455 5, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Christian Ayling
Harvesting Hope
Yasemin Sandulli's life spirals out of control after her brother is accused of murder. Following a torrent of events, her father must fight for his life, while her brother fights for his freedom. As Yasemin begins to question her identity and faith, she finds her answer in the most unlikely place.
'The twists and turns in this thought-provoking young-adult fiction will keep the reader enthralled to the end.' - Kathleen Stewart, Authors' Ally
978 1 74027 457 9, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Bigna
Secrets
Secrets are the stories that are often told in whispers. Secrets are the stories that sneak into our subconscious and follow us. Secrets is an innovative and exciting collection of stories by a talented emerging writer - well worth discovering.
Mockingbird 1 74027 253 6, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jane Bradhurst
A Dangerous Beauty
An intriguing story of love, jealousy and an unsolved mystery on a university campus in the 1950s, played out against the everlasting perils of sea and shore.
1 74027 354 0, 106pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tessa Bremner
An Affair With Mr Renoir
Sometimes dramatic, sometimes delicate, always to the point, Tessa Bremner’s collection of short stories presents a very poignant view of the lives of her characters and their struggle to have their voices heard above the noise of cultural sensibilities. In her storytelling, Bremner draws on a lifetime in theatre to make her characters three-dimensional and all too real.
1 74027 236 6, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
John Burless & Suzanne Nehl
Plains of Fortune
This fine novel is so soundly based on the archives of colonial Queensland and Federal Australia that it is difficult to separate the fictional family from the real characters who share the pages with them. The story follows the adventures of the Macgregor family, who go to make their fortune on the plains of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The rumbustious pioneer life in the gold fields of Croydon, and at Normanton and Burketown, is vigorously drawn. The family's letters and journals also tell of the daily life of women coping with primitive conditions - births, deaths, fires, accidents, whatever came their way. The family lives through the disaster of the 1890s depression when most banks went broke, the excitements of Federation, the terrible Federation drought, the tragedy of the Boer War and the gigantic loss of men in World War I - these were events that shaped us as the nation we became for much of the twentieth century.
978 1 74027 518 7, 508pp, $35.00 BUY NOW
David Campbell
Morning Light
'David Campbell has a deep understanding of the extra-ordinary moments to be found in the dreams, lives, loves and losses of ordinary people. In these skilfully understated and distinctly Australian stories he explores the relationships between people, place and circumstance with a clarity, intensity and sensitivity that is reminiscent of such writers as Henry Lawson, Geoffrey Dean and Tim Winton. Through finely observed detail, wonderful insights and original, memorable voices, the reader is drawn into worlds that are tender, humorous, violent, disturbing and deeply moving. An outstanding first collection from an important and exciting new writer of contemporary Australian fiction.' - Michael de Valle
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 451 7, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Rees Campbell
The Legacy
This evocative story tells of a young girl growing up within an affluent middle-class Australian family. But it is also a story shared by so many who need to overcome the violence and power wielded within the home. The Legacy uncovers the way the patchwork pieces of memory and perception gathered from childhood, through mothering and onto reflection, shape our own distinct quilts.
978 1 74027 550 7, 82pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Avril Caney
Mind the Gap
Join the unwary travellers in this collection of stories who hear or don't hear the warning to 'mind the gap', who stumble and fall, or leap and rise above the treacherous gaps they encounter.
'The narrative skill is clear and the story telling well paced.' - Sunday Tasmanian
978 1 74027 514 9, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Lucy Chesser
Cut Loose
Sumatra, land of jungles and tigers and volcanoes. And heart-stopping traffic and cheap beer and clove cigarettes. Ethan is 14 and running wild. His brother Jon, 19, knows he has to do something.
978 1 74027 509 5, 192pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Laurie Clancy
Loyalties
Whether it is a husband's sense of rejection by his wife, a university lecturer hesitating over whether he should accept a student’s invitation to sleep with him or, as in the title story,a young boy's careful balancing of his duties towards his estranged parents, these complex, honest and sometimes very funny stories concern that crucial moment at which competing allegiances have somehow to be resolved.
'Clancy has an uncanny ability...to home in on his characters' hidden flaws and weaknesses, as well as their suddenly discovered strengths.' - Canberra Times
'Clancy's stories are unflashy, well crafted...centred in the analysis and unsentimental reckoning of middle-class life in Australia.' - The Age
'What do we value in a short story? Clancy's stories satisfy all its stringent demands: for brevity yet psychological and situational development; and for that moment of illumination, of self-awareness, of resolution, which delights and satisfies the reader.' - Australian Book Review
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 415 9, 112pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Ray Clift
The Journey of Hamlin Baylis Wells
Hamlin Baylis Wells, 30 years an undercover detective, has a major decision to make. His immaculate career and religious convictions are at odds with an impulsive decision not to declare a large sum of money found during a police operation. In the resulting journey of self-discovery, he finds a way to atone for his decision.
978 1 74027 547 7, 36pp, $16.00 BUY NOW
Stanley Robert Cole
The Boy from Sweetwater Creek
Eighty-four-year-old Charlie Baker visits Sweetwater Creek for only the second time in his life. This time it is to lay flowers on the memorial which also will bear the name of Larry Foley, who died saving Charlie's life during the war. When the old digger talks to Sweetwater Creek residents about the lack of a satisfactory World War II memorial, he realises he has one more battle to fight. His only wish is that he will not have to tell how Larry Foley died. He is absolutely certain he cannot tell that story again.
978 1 74027 494 4, 54pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
T.M. Collins
Until a Shrimp Learns to Whistle
'I hope your images don't come back to haunt me when I'm in the geriatric ward.' - Gwen Harwood
'Tim Collins writes about immediate response to life's personal issues.' - Tom Shapcott
'He has a sharp eye for the implied conflicts both within the individual and as reflected in the particular society.' - Bruce Dawe
'Using strong voices, he gets inside the skin of his characters and makes the reader believe implicitly in them.' - Studio
978 1 74027 404 3, $20.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The King of Patagonia
Stories exploring the roles of men, as husbands, fathers and sons, placed in situations of emotional crisis.
'...accomplished, compassionate stories…lean and honest prose...' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 019 3, 104pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The Queen of Aegea
Stories of men and women which touch upon feelings that are usually not easily expressed.
'...skilful and resonant with male pain...' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 086 X, 118pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
Princess of Cups
'This collection...will delight with economy of expression and discerning insights.' - Canberra Times
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2004
Mockingbird 1 74027 224 2, 120pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The Prince of Frogs
A collection of stories that dissect relationships and the way the modern world impacts upon our lives. The emotions in these stories, whether tragic or bitingly humorous, cut deep, looking at longing and loss as well as the redemptive and transformative powers of love.
'Talent and experience have produced some gems here. His prose is fluent yet unadorned, with a relaxed idiom that is especially good when portraying young Australian men.' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 435 7, 122pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
A Funny Thing Happened at 27,000 Feet
Short stories that poke a sharp satirical stick into the eye of the age of terror and refuse to conform to the political rhetoric and media sensationalism of our times.
'...short fiction that grabs the war on terror in a satirical tackle and wrestles it to the ground.' - The Age
Winner, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2006
Mockingbird 1 74027 337 0, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
Futures Trading
Craig Cormick's latest collection of stories follows the paths of the unwinding global financial crisis, using satire and speculation to take us on journeys into near futures that could easily be our tomorrows.
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 560 6, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick (editor)
Winners
This collection is devoted to the best writing from the 2003 Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award and the Writers Centre Poetry Award. The poems and stories are striking in their originality, diversity and quality. They are winners in every sense of the word.
Mockingbird 1 74027 256 0, 50pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
P.S. Cottier
A Quiet Day
Stories ranging from the bizarre to the familiarly suburban, and often showing the strangeness of ordinary lives.
978 1 74027 576 7, 68pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Robert Cox
Alibis, Lies, Goodbyes
Six stories about love - unrequited, abortive, dying, and dead. In this collection Robert Cox focuses a sometimes wry, sometimes melancholy gaze on love and loneliness and the intersection where the two meet - and all too often go their own ways.
'...the work of not only a fine writer, but of a sensitive observer of human relations.' - 40º South
'...impresses for its sharp focus on the frailty and passions of life.' - Sunday Tasmanian
1 74027 376 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Robert Cox
The Clarity of Tears
Self-revelations can bring tears - and self-revelation can be brought by tears. In his latest collection of stories Robert Cox focuses sharply on both kinds of personal, painful epiphany.
'...celebrates the enduring importance of the short story form.' - Sunday Tasmanian
978 1 74027 474 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jen Craig
Since the Accident
In a suburban Sydney pub, a woman tells her younger sister the story of how her life has changed since a serious car accident. She speaks of the blossoming of romance, the rediscovery of her long-dormant creativity: her ability to draw. And yet an exhibition comes to nothing, a lover is abandoned. She leaves everything behind. In the driving monologue of her own narrative, the younger sister attempts to make sense of her life and the events and thoughts that have obsessed the elder since the accident.
‘...Craig is a writer of great skill.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
‘...well-written...promising debut.’ - The Compulsive Reader
978 1 74027 563 7, 196pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Georgia Dale
Deviant
'A powerful parody of where we are heading as a society.' - Mike Steketee, The Australian
1 74027 031 2, 116pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Michael de Valle
Going Home
A new collection by this very talented author.
'...offers readers significantly more than do the vast majority of the standard new fiction titles available in our bookshops, as Michael lithely walks a tightrope, effortlessly balancing readers' needs for emotional content, a challenge, character empathy and entertainment.' - Australian Reader
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 381 7, 108pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Adriana Vincent Ellis
Glass
The stories in Glass are about families, about love, connections, loss. Filled with subtle insights, they are stories of the heart. Written in a polished, clear prose, holding resonant images, they are told with a wry, sly humour.
'Ellis's acute powers of observation create subtle energy in stories of quiet spirit.' - Sydney Morning Herald
'...the reader finds in Ellis’s limpid art a sense of real wonder...' - Australian Book Review
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 388 6, 110pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Nigel Featherstone
Joy
'...pretty damn good. In fact, pretty bloody excellent.' - Christos Tsiolkas
1 74027 039 8, 179pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Neville Fletcher
Brief Candles
'...enchanting…an eclectic selection of themes ranging from science fiction to a kind of inoffensive quasi-religion, something deep-thinking readers can relate to… A joy to browse and read at one’s leisure.' - Colin Keay, Australian Physics
978 1 74027 467 8, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tracey-Anne Forbes
Crushed Sugar
In this collection of short stories, Tracey-Anne Forbes explores the gulf between illusion and reality in her protagonists' lives. In a complex presentation of womanhood, she offers an unravelling of a maze of myths. These stories encompass the joys and shocks of girlhood, marriage and family life; the final tales embrace grief and ultimate redemption.
'What makes these stories rise high and hit home is the lyricism of the language and the sheer poetry of Tracey's insights...this is, I think, what in coming years will define her as a writer.' - Venero Armanno
'It is her precise details and their Australian familiarity that breathe life into Forbes’ collection. She creates a picture through the use of original metaphors and similes that make you feel as if you are there, as if you are safe - and then pulls the rug from beneath your feet with her honesty.' - Writing Queensland
978 1 74027 412 8, 168pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Lesley Fowler
Washing My Mother's Hair
'...assured, challenging and often captivating.' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 111 4, 100pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Peter Frankis
Trouble in the Garden
Travel, love, machinery, night: these are some of the funny, troubling, acute tales in Peter Frankis's first collection of stories. Enter a world of surreal and humorous lives that have hidden depths and challenging ideas.
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2005
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2005
Mockingbird 1 74027 252 8, 116pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Peter Frankis
Not a Flotation Device
Sit with Janey at the bottom of the lake, see a clerk tranformed into a magical beast, drink cask-chardonnay at the end of the world and watch the rain from a balcony at the Emerald Hotel: there's a flood of ideas and images in this second collection of Peter Frankis's short fiction.
'Frankis offers us glimpses of imaginary beings and places, which, by their very oddness, illuminate our more prosaic lives.' - Canberra Times
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2008
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 411 1, $20.00 BUY NOW
Jeremy Gadd
Country
In locations ranging from the lush tropical wetlands of the Northern Territory to the arid outback, where the landscape is so flat ‘the line between heaven and earth could have been drawn with the use of a ruler by some superior hand’, the reader encounters a variety of characters unique to rural life.
978 1 74027 458 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Beryl Gamble
Family Secrets
Beginning with one soldier's return from Gallipoli in 1916, and continuing through the years with the joys and trials of his family until 1925, Family Secrets is the story of a Melbourne family, all touched in some way by World War I, be it directly or indirectly.
978 1 74027 416 4, $26.00 BUY NOW
Beryl Gamble
And Then: More Family Secrets
The continuing story of the four McArthur sisters from 1926 to 1945, giving a picture of life as it was then in suburban Melbourne. Although fiction, many of the events are based on true incidents.
978 1 74027 534 7, $30.00 BUY NOW
Angus Gaunt
Prime Cuts
Themes of deception, betrayal and unexpected delight are woven through Angus Gaunt's first collection of stories. A maiden aunt prepares herself to be evicted from her home, and finds something wonderful happens. A father is taken in by a prodigal son's promise of worldly gains. And why does the small town so dislike the new café owners? These stories cut across time and place but all focus on the eternal frailty of the human condition.
'His stories...all bear the mark of a writer with an instinct for narrative; they are the right shape.' - Australian Book Review
'...meaty and satisfying...' - Overland
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 459 3, $18.00 BUY NOW
Marya Glyn-Daniel
The Ball's Up
A one-act play based on an incident which occurred when the author was working at Ian Allan Publishers in England, in the 1970s.
978 1 74027 438 8, $15.00 BUY NOW
Marya Glyn-Daniel
Gulf Country
A one-act play based on an incident that occurred when the playwright was travelling, on a working holiday, through North Queensland.
978 1 74027 029 8, $15.00 BUY NOW
Molly Guy
Reading Between the Lines
'Papier mâché babies, nuns reaching down throats with endoscopic tongues, cut jugulars bleeding diamonds... Molly Guy's quirky micro tales are sometimes hilarious, sometimes brutal, but, most often, both. Her characters can be inanimate props, and her props can just as easily become endearing characters. Molly Guy ruthlessly paints the world as she perceives it – weird, and oddly innocent, and, almost certainly, brimming with a compelling and banal savagery. I cried until I laughed!' - Philomena van Rijswijk
978 1 74027 581 1, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Julia Haisley
The Good Samaritan
When a boat carrying asylum seekers is wrecked south of Adelaide, local teenager Josh hides one of the escapees in his shed. The struggle to keep Habib hidden leads Josh to face formerly unknown challenges to his cosy, comfortable world. The tension builds as Josh combats different threats to Habib's safety, culminating in an exciting climax on the day of his sister's wedding.
‘...an interesting slant on the story of the Good Samaritan...a worthwhile read...’ - Evangelicals Now
978 1 74027 520 0, 120pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Leonie Hall
Two Shillings & other stories
Leonie Hall has always lived in central Victoria. She began writing when the last of her children left home and to date has had three novels published plus short stories in magazines and anthologies. She is married and has six children, numerous grandchildren and one great grandchild. As well as her first love, writing, her interests vary from volunteer work to handcrafts, reading, singing and walking, and she has also travelled widely.
978 1 74027 535 4, 48pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Rebecca Hayman
God & Other Problems
If life had followed the path Linda had planned for it, then she need never have bothered with God. But unable to find regular work, Linda struggled against poverty, loneliness and purposelessness. Divine silence accentuated the accumulation of disappointment, and church merely muddied the issue. Stillness and solitude offered an unlikely way forward.
Shortlisted for The Australian Vogel Award in 2000
978 1 74027 393 0, 154pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Elanna Herbert
Frieda & the Cops
Elanna Herbert effectively grasps the complex dual nature of life in suburban Canberra of decades past, showing the smooth veneer of suburban normality and the hidden underside of isolation, family conflict or personal lives spinning out of control. The collection makes rich and inviting reading.
Runner-up, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2006
Mockingbird 1 74027 303 6, 105pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Steve Holden
The Bird in the Egg and other stories
'Steve Holden is a master of the brief narrative and telling episode. His stories eddy with myriad significances even as they present recognisable places and people. They successfully conjure the restlessness and idiosyncrasy of humanity and persuasively explore the mysteriousness of human motivation and circumstance. These haunting stories speak about domestic intimacies, individual aspirations and the ways people choose to live together and apart. They are consistently probing, luminous and insightful.' - Paul Hetherington
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2009
978 1 74027 491 3, 90pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Robert Horne
Undergrowth
Robert Horne's fascinating range of characters haunt the bars, porches and offices of Adelaide looking for answers to questions about themselves. They are often angry, frustrated and confused, but always seeking an opportunity for change. This book of stories is at once challenging and life-affirming.
1 74027 276 5, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ann Howard
Bonsai Ballerina
'Undoubtedly you write well...your work reminds me of Di Morrissey...your best writing reminds me of Delia Falconer (The Service of Clouds) at her best...' - Kate Llewellyn
1 74027 379 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Madeleine Huxtable
The Flight of the Scorpion
On Saturday 7 March 1942, 12 RAF and RAAF personnel set sail from Tjilatjap, Java, in a 30-foot wooden lifeboat. Their mission: to reach Roebourne on the northern coast of West Australia and bring rescue to the remaining airmen trapped on the island who were in danger of being captured by the enemy. Written in memory of the author's father, RAAF Flight Sergeant William Nicholas Pax Cosgrove (1918-1943) of Richmond, Victoria, who was a member of that crew. The names, dates and some events are true. The rest is fiction.
1 74027 294 3, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Angela Johnson
No Stories, No Songs
'Concealed between the covers of Angela Johnson's collection of short stories is a delightful smorgasbord of autobiographical and imagined writing. Beginning with an insight into poverty and relationships through a child's eyes, it then moves to a more adult, at times disturbing but no less insightful, view of the world. A frisson of terror adds to the pleasure. In short, an enjoyable and at times thought-provoking collection of things that make you go hmmm...' - Mark d'Arbon
978 1 74027 564 4, 66pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Tiggy Johnson
Svetlana or Otherwise
'Tiggy's is a new voice with a refreshingly domestic bent. From controlled crying and the quiet relief of a cup of tea, to pregnancy tests gone wrong; from neighbourly suspicion, to the suspicion that can tear relationships apart, Tiggy is writing about the everyday, the things we know, and, most importantly, the things we know we should know better. It is energising to read a writer who understands the importance of life’s details, and who celebrates the small moments of decision and indecision that take us from day’s beginning to day's end.' - Louise Swinn, Sleepers Publishing
'Her tight, clean sentences are a pleasure to read and keep our attention.' - The Age
'Johnson has a fine grasp of the form in both a commercial and an artistic sense.' - Literary Minded
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 461 6, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sharon Kernot
In the Shadows of the Garden
Sharon Kernot presents an assortment of short stories that reside and crackle in the tense spaces of suburban Australia. She writes about poverty, addiction and difficult relationships. Her stories revolve around suburban streets; they dip into the local shopping mall, the welfare office, community centre and the neighbour’s house. There is much darkness in these pages but there is also light, laughter and hope.
‘These stories, concisely but movingly, take the small moments of life, the small losses, and from them whole lives are given to us. We are grateful for the truth in these stories, which fill us with their larger overtones.’ - Tom Shapcott
978 1 74027 584 2, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Chris Leckonby
Once Bitten
Chris Leckonby grew up in post-war rural Yorkshire, married a farmer and spent ten years on the family farm, where she enjoyed brief success writing freelance articles for Farmers Weekly. In 1972 with their four children, the couple emigrated and settled in the suburbs of Adelaide. The family moved to the Adelaide hills, and Chris trained as a teacher. Retirement brought the chance to write again, and this is Chris's first book of short stories.
978 1 74027 593 4, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Pat Lindsay
The Seeds of a Pomegranate
'Pat Lindsay is an accomplished storyteller who is unafraid to explore the darker side of society as well as its more engaging aspects. Her compact tales of contemporary Australian life have energy and pace and her characters are convincing. Read one story in this collection and you will want to read every one.' - Beverly George
1 74027 318 4, 212pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Michelle Lopert
Happy Families & Other Delusions
In this collection of award-winning stories, Michelle Lopert delves into the darker side of human nature. With humour and sharpness, she explores the disturbing aspects of unhappy relationships. Greed, jealousy and thwarted desires merge with tales of paranoia and revenge. The voices are distinct, the emotions honest, and the endings are often surprising. These spare, punchy stories will intrigue the reader long after the final page is read.
978 1 74027 499 9, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Brendan Mackie
Lonely in Crowds
Brendan Mackie captures the voices of young people, searching for something that is difficult to even grasp in words - yet Brendan's stories touch on those longings in ways that make you feel you understand them.
Mockingbird 1 74027 211 0, 116pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Stephen Matthews (editor)
Secrets
Keeping secrets can lead to all sorts of problems and misunderstandings as these 10 terrific children's stories show. (Stories selected from the 2006 Ginninderra Press short story for children competition)
Winner, Children's, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
978 1 74027 395 4, 100pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Annabelle McEntyre
Death at The Downs
Murder at Mella Downs. Several suspects, but who is the killer, and will he strike again? This is Annabelle McEntyre's second book. Several of her short stories have been published; some have won awards. Annabelle writes to entertain readers and hopes this book will do just that. She is working on a third novel and there are more in the pipeline.
978 1 74027 597 2, 42pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Andrea McMahon
Skin Hunger
Skin Hunger explores the emotional and physical craving for touch, for human contact, in all its varied guises. Andrea McMahon's stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania, with her three children and for most of the past twenty years has had the good fortune to work as a cataloguer with the State Library of Tasmania.
'...impressive for...their range and...their restrained tone.' - Sunday Tasmanian
'Few emerging writers exhibit such an understanding of the form's true nature, the epiphanic potential of the ordinary... A welcome addition to Tasmanian letters...' Hobart Mercury
978 1 74027 513 2, 108pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Murray McNair
Captain Kreel's Contraband
Shattered by his internment with the rest of the Vienna Mozart Boys Choir in September 1939, Joseph Geinler is sent to live out the world war in a tiny Western Australian wheatbelt town. A personal dream and the help of some unlikely friends leads him to set out on a remarkable journey in an attempt to reach his homeland and end the Second World War.
978 1 74027 420 3, 88pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Kim Miller
Insiders
'With a wry humour, Kim Miller describes disturbingly Australian stories of crime, perplexity and illusion... These intricate outcast characters will appeal to those who remember that Australia.' - Dr Craig San Roque
Mockingbird 1 74027 336 2, 122pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Mondays at Tilley's
Humorous and serious poems and stories by six Canberra writers who met over coffee at Tilley Devine’s Café Gallery in the Canberra suburb of Lyneham on Mondays.
1 74027 016 9, 224pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
John Morley
The Good Intent
Sleeping with a co-worker, parties with friends, buying cereal, writing poetry or catching the bus - what could possibly go wrong? The Good Intent is a collection of stories about the everyday and the exceptional day. If you’re lucky, you just might finish up in front.
1 74027 364 8, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Anthony Noack
Eaglemont
A young boy spends a day wandering through the Melbourne suburb of Eaglemont interacting in his imagination with the historical figures who shaped it. Through the original inhabitants of the area, the artists of the Heidelberg School and the architect of the estate, Walter Burley Griffin, he seeks to learn all he can about the land around him.
978 1 74027 528 6, 40pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Sean O'Leary
My Town
Sean O'Leary takes us on an itinerant journey around the country in this collection of linked stories that moves from cheap motels to hostels and the roads between them. He captures his key character, Stevie, in moments of crisis and decision that keeps him moving, running from one confrontation to encounter another. There is a gritty honesty to his work that makes it captivating to read.
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 590 3, 110pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Ryan O'Neill
Six Tenses
In these stories, a dying man thinks on the past. A foreign schoolgirl studying English learns only betrayal. A bookmark keeps a novel open for a father and a son. And it is found that a hundred words are not enough to tell a life.
'...written with such mastery that it is a joy to read... Ryan O'Neill is a name worth watching for.' - Newcastle Herald
Mockingbird 1 74027 299 4, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ryan O'Neill
A Famine in Newcastle
An exhilarating new collection of stories from the Newcastle-based author of Six Tenses.
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2007
Mockingbird 1 74027 360 5, 62pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Louise Pakeman
Time Away
Much of Louise Pakeman's short fiction has appeared in magazines in Australia and England and in anthologies but she is better known for her full-length novels. Louise was born in England but has lived in Australia since 1968. The stories in this collection reflect her belief that we are all, people and animals, part of the Divine.
978 1 74027 529 3, 60pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Gordon Reid
Across the Plains
Stories giving a picture of life in the small towns, on the lonely farms and vast sheep stations of the Riverina district of New South Wales.
'...a varied and strong collection...a lively portrait of country Australia...' - Australian Book Review
1 876259 54 X, 280pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Gordon Reid
Hornet Bank
Just before dawn late in 1857, Aborigines crept up on a sleeping homestead in the Dawson River valley, central Queensland, and slaughtered eight members of the Fraser family and three employees. In the retribution by the Native Mounted Police and white vigilantes, at least three hundred Aborigines died. In this historical novel, the story of Hornet Bank is told thirty-five years later by Thomas Scott, son of the founder. He has good reason for meditating on the meaning of the Fraser massacre. His wife has been raped recently by an Aborigine at the station and now she is pregnant. Day after day they wait to see whether the child will be his or the rapist's. And, as each day passes, the strain on husband and wife creeps closer to breaking point.
978 1 74027 573 6, 308pp, $30.00 BUY NOW
Harry Saddler
We Both Know: 10 stories about relationships
Harry Saddler was raised in Canberra and now lives in Melbourne, where he writes an online serial, Instant Life Substitute.
174027 298 6, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Harry Saddler
Small Moments
An engrossing short novel set in Canberra at the time of the devastating 2003 bushfires.
978 1 74027 425 8, 140pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Mal Sanderson
Old Wood New Fires
Janus, the Roman god of doors, of beginnings and endings, symbolises change and transition, past into future, one vision into another. Old Wood New Fires explores such journeys. As the enigmatic woman in 'Silent Communion' puts it, 'Some must travel from mind to heart. Others will travel from the heart to mind. It all comes to the same thing in the end, I suppose. If one is to understand.'
978 1 74027 517 0, 98pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Duncan N. Sargeant
Ship of Fools
Hundreds of years ago there was a theory. Put a bunch of mentally ill men on a sailing ship on the high seas, sail them away and by the time they returned home they would be cured. It was a ludicrous idea, but that didn't stop the doctors from trying it.
978 1 74027 401 2, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Vicky Sentana
Buried Alive
There’s a little bit of Sarah in all of us… Sarah is in a psychiatric hospital. They watch her twenty-four hours a day. She lives in a haze of drugs and no one will tell her why she's there. Worst of all, they're planning to let her out.
978 1 74027 465 4, $17.50 BUY NOW
Alice Shore
Circles in Sand
Five engaging tales about feminine strength and integrity.
1 74027 235 8, 62pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Rory Steele
Ghosts in the Helmet Trees
In World War II, Italian partisans became a thorn in the side of the German occupiers. This is the story of Tommaso, who left his partisan colleagues during their last stand and slipped through the attackers to reach his beloved Loredana, daughter of a Fascist official.
'Rory Steele is an energetic and sensuous writer and he weaves the two strands of his narrative together with considerable skill.' - The Age
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
978 1 74027 383 1, 284pp, $27.50 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
While Others Dream
Some dream sweetly in their beds at night. For others, one small mistake, a chance encounter, brings nightmares.
'...short sharp writing that hooks with the first line and twists a knife in the guts in the last.' - Yass Tribune
Mockingbird 1 74027 287 0, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
Cry of the Curlew
The kookaburra laughs, the robin sings, But the stone-curlew wails mournfully in the dark of night. So too it is with man. More stories by the author of While Others Dream.
1 74027 363 X, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
Heroes
Everyone’s a hero and everyone’s a coward, some time. New stories from the author of Cry of the Curlew.
978 1 74027 551 4, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Vicki Thornton
Last Days of Summer
Passionate, powerful and poetic, Vicki Thornton, a master of brevity, writes of relationships, of breaking free, with a lack of emotionalism, a sparseness that leaves the reader gasping for more. With a minimalist hand, she captures a sense of scene, mood, time then allows the reader in to feel the protagonist's brokenness, her emotional distance as a relationship dies. Visual, succinct and believable. - Joy Dettman
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 463 0, $17.50 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Dreaming Australia
Blood flows on the war-torn streets of Masar e-Sharif. To try to cope with that, and barbarous Taliban rule, Soraya illegally reads and attends a secret girls' school. But when her mother is killed in a missile attack, all Soraya’s girlish dreams and aspirations appear to be crushed forever.
'...moving and exciting. Tolbert's narrative moves along at a satisfying pace.' - Viewpoint
174027 288 9, 162pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Surfing for Wayan
In the title story, seventeen-year-old Jacob returns to Bali. Once terrified of surfboards, he’s there to surf wild for four people, including his brother killed in the 2002 Bali bombing.
'...reassuringly local while addressing universal themes and incorporating Asian references.' - Sunday Tasmanian
1 74027 353 2, 102 pages, $18.50 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Packing Smack, Talking Wombats
A thrilling novel for young adults. Both of them fleeing the outside world, eighteen-year-old Jackson and reclusive Pete meet on the remote east coast of Flinders Island. Unfortunately, the place is not remote enough.
'Steve Tolbert has intertwined two contrasting worlds and produced a riveting and engrossing novel. It evokes powerfully both the violence and police corruption of the drug scene in the Melbourne underworld as well as it does the natural beauty of Flinders Island and the integrity of the people who live there. The writing is superb and has left me with a longing to visit Flinders Island while allowing me the illusion that I know so much about it already.' - Viewpoint
978 1 74027 407 4, $22.50 BUY NOW
Jackie Tritt
Unfettered Feet
A collection of stories about breaking free, through migration, through changes in relationships and through personal growth.
978 1 74027 421 0, 79pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tuggeranong WORD Group
Postcard from Canberra
A diverse collection of poems and stories by Peter Burbrook, Helen Cunningham, June Foster and Daphne Hargreaves.
1 74027 270 6, 128pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Sue Varteg
Infinity Is a Big Place
A number of Sue Varteg's short stories have been published in various magazines, but this is the first time any of her stories have been published as a collection.
978 1 74027 595 8, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
A Conversation with Emily
Literary creation and motherhood are often likened to each other. In this collection, Zenda Vecchio shows that the similarity need not be a playful way of speaking so much as a bizarre reality.
'...a talented writer...' - Tamba
1 74027 076 2, 48pp, $15.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Mavis
This novella projects the forest-dark world of ancient folklore into modern middle-class domesticity.
1 74027 066 5, 56pp, $15.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Children at the Gate
Childhood is another country: they do things differently there. Zenda Vecchio’s double gift is to be able to remember that strange land (which adults generally forget or unconsciously falsify) and to re-present it in elegant, economical prose. These - often dark - stories are compelling reminders of a world we all once lived in.
'Zenda Vecchio maintains her distinctive storytelling voice throughout this engaging foray into the journeys towards self-identity...' - Tamba
1 74027 317 6, 67pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Tiger! Tiger!
We all hunt one another. Obsessed from childhood with William Blake's poem 'The Tiger', award-winning author Zenda Vecchio has used it in this collection of short stories to explore the relationship between predator and prey in the lives of her characters.
978 1 74027 489 0, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ken Vincent
Butterfly Girl
Tracy would give anything to be popular instead of a figure of fun. Though she is intelligent beyond her years, neither her family nor those in her school can see past her obesity. Tracy finds herself rejected by her father, isolated from her siblings and living with an alcoholic mother. After experiencing horrors no young woman should have to endure, she is taken into care, where she experiences the strengths and weaknesses of the system.
978 1 74027 548 4, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ken Vincent
Chains of Fear
This thrilling novel follows the life of a young woman, Nancy Overton, as she flees from a brutal marriage. She is pursued by her ex-husband, who has always threatened to kill her if she left him. She hides away on a Queensland cattle station, where she meets Joe, the owner’s son, but even there her ex-husband finds her and makes several attempts on her life. Good friends help to keep her safe but over time she changes from the innocent victim into a strong resilient woman who is well able to care for herself, and she fights back. With this new-found confidence, she pursues a singing career and achieves international success. She is reluctant to commit to any new relationship but in the end she cannot deny her love for Joe.
'...an absorbing plot with believable characters facing modern day situations with courage and resilience.' - ARPA News
978 1 74027 574 3, 230pp, $26.00 BUY NOW
Sonya Voumard
Political Animals
Political Animals explores the inner workings of Canberra life: the mutually exploitative relationship between politics and the media; the factional infighting; the sexual tension; the political deal-making; the fragility of ethics when ambition and career advancement take priority.compulsively readable. It is very much a novel of our times.
'Political Animals grabs you immediately. A convincing story of political intrigue in Australia, it keeps you hooked until the end. The book will capture the imagination of anyone with a sliver of interest in contemporary Australian realpolitik. Part of what I loved about this book was the voice of the narrator, a sassy, independent though always vulnerable thirty-something Canberra journo whose creator never allows her to fall into the stereotypical traps awaiting her... I want to describe it as chick lit grows up but know that description clouds the serious moral vision the author brings to her writing. Voumard is a new writer with a new voice and a new vision.' - Ian Syson
'...political junkies will find much that is fascinating, such as the back-stabbing by staffers and the conflicts of interest between the main players. Voumard's extensive experience allows her to capture the nuances of working in the media and the blurring of the lines between reporting and campaigning... Overall, however, she has done a very good job of putting the reader in the middle of some tense action.' - Canberra Times
'Credible characters and a storyline that explores important issues without sanctimony or contrivance make for a powerful debut from one who knows the circus well.' - Qantas Magazine
'...bears the unmistakable stamp of authenticity...a well-written novel...' - Sydney Morning Herald
'...a sharp, dark and credibly drawn descent into the benthic relationship between Australian politicians and the media. With so many cookie-cutter political thrillers around, it’s refreshing to read one that’s so savage and true to life.' - The Age
'This ambitious novel tackles a heady mix of moral issues juxtaposed against personal and political histories in a contemporary setting.' - Australian Book Review
978 1 74027 502 6, 218pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Lisa Wardle
Reflections
‘There are no distortions in the mirror facing the world of Lisa Wardle’s Reflections. Predators lurk on beaches, in homes and under the characters’ own skin. Both strangers and family members are kept at more than an arm’s length. People are hurt, full of holes and walking alone. Uncertainty, fear, and mortality haunt these characters and narratives. The weight and smell of genetics and personal history come to play. Shifts occur and regrets surface from past to present. Sometimes bonds are formed - uncommon, even strange. At other times, the strains on trapped relationships are ultimately and joyously broken. Mainly, the negative behaviours - learned, inherited, or spawned through ill-treatment - live on, in Wardle’s accessible prose which captures each character’s distinct, colloquial voice and acts to shock, rattle and ultimately awaken the reader.’ - Angela Meyer (LiteraryMinded)
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 588 0, 76 pages, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jen Webb
Ways of Getting By
Jen Webb's characters confront the demands of relationships and work in a rural city surrounded by drought, and their stories are filled with an authentic taste of gentle loneliness and the ways people find of getting by.
Mockingbird 1 74027 343 5, 96pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Peter Weir
A Garden of Delights
These stories by a Barossa Valley writer take you from the fires of Hell to the lonely world of a motherless boy, with many stops in between.
978 1 74027 387 9, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Maurice Whelan
Boat People
'In this refreshing novel, Maurice Whelan addresses with bravery and skill the eternal reality of Australia, that we are a nation of refugees.' - Tom Keneally
'This compelling novel is woven from archetypal stories which make up the tapestry of white settlement in Australia. Economic refugees from Ireland during the potato famine; political refugees fleeing persecution in the middle east. Their stories are powerfully similar, but also different in significant ways. The latest to arrive seem destined to try hardest, but to be singled out for hard treatment.' - Julian Burnside
'Everyone from 18 to 80 should read this book.' - Clare Calvet (ABC Radio)
'This book raised the hair on the back of my neck, which is one definition of a really good novel. Written with great energy and urgency, which are rare and precious qualities.' - Bob White, Professor of English, UWA
978 1 74027 474 8, 242pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Ian Wilkinson
Storms
Ian Wilkinson has a Bachelor of Architecture from Melbourne University and a Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing & Editing) from Peninsula TAFE, Frankston. He is a winner of the City of Brisbane Short Story Award and runner up in the Fellowship of Australian Writers Jim Hamilton Award for unpublished manuscripts. In these stories he charts a path through the stormy landscapes of personal relationships and in doing so takes the reader from the heart of Australian cities to its outer suburbs and coastal fringes, and from Oxford, UK, to Glasgow in Scotland. He takes you through bushfires, wild storms and into the souls of his characters. Join in the journey.
'With each of Ian Wilkinson’s short stories we see him flex his literary muscles. We watch how he weaves his way back and forward in time, how sharp his dialogue is and how skilfully he can take us to a particular place.' - The Age
978 1 74027 526 2, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jane Williams
Other Lives
'Jane Williams gets inside the intimate moment hovering there at the cusp between the real and the imagined. She tells this moment from the inside out, small worlds spring to vivid life, and the human condition shines in all its flawed dignity. These are stories to touch the trigger of the soul – I will read them over and over again.' - Pete Hay
978 1 74027 432 6, 37pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Kate Willson
Race for Home
Axel Flanagan can’t believe that one minute he’s lounging in the beanbag, eating cheese and onion chips and racing cars on his new Playstation game and the next he’s driving a real Monaro on a real racetrack amidst real racing cars.
'...an enjoyable book for those who like the excitement of games. It has enough adventure in it to attract readers who may not find the game side of it appealing and the inclusion of female characters might just attract female readers.' - buzzwordsmagazine.com
978 1 74027 439 5, 95pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
Holy Orders
The first of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 482 1, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
The Immortal Game
The second of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 515 6, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
Waking Dream
The third of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 516 3, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Jacqueline Winn
Once More With Feeling
These award-winning short stories will take you on a journey of the imagination that celebrates the wonderful diversity of human life and cannot help but leave you looking at the world through different eyes.
1 74027 370 2, 154pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Jacqueline Winn
Salt & Pepper
Another rich assortment of short stories guaranteed to amuse one moment and touch your heart the next. All of these stories have won literary awards in Australia, New Zealand, Britain or Ireland. This is a collection that is sure to leave a lasting impression.
978 1 74027 569 9, 152pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Jena Woodhouse
Farming Ghosts
On a Queensland farm in the aftermath of World War II, Harry Vance’s dream becomes his daughter-in-law’s nightmare. Reminiscent of Chekhov’s landlocked characters, those whose lives are circumscribed by Harry and his farm, Rosewood, long for empowerment and freedom of choice. Volatile energies and unspoken desires simmer beneath the surface of the Vances’ world, which crumbles under irresistible pressures, bequeathing a legacy that enters the psyche as heartbreaking landscapes and haunting dreamscapes.
‘...written in a poet’s prose, dense with imagery and unexpected turns of language and thought…explores the implications of white settlement, the effect on an extended family of two world wars, changes in rural life and the gap between dreams and reality that can, if wide enough, wreck someone’s life.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
978 1 74027 556 9, 200pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Julian Woods
Next Stop, Goulburn
Twelve stories reflecting scattered segments of Australian life in southern NSW in the latter half of the twentieth century. The author writes of human types and situations and tries to create significance from the chaos of experience.
'Woods shows characters having personal epiphanies or just being their idiosyncratic selves whether on a train journey or in the presence of fascinating others.' - Canberra Times
1 74027 326 5, 324pp, $26.00 BUY NOW
Stephen Matthews Ginninderra Press PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015
stephen@ginninderrapress.com.au
www.ginninderrapress.com.au
ABN 42 447 290 724
All prices are in Australian dollars and include Australian Goods & Services Tax (GST). GST is deducted from overseas orders.
Postage & handling will be added to your order:
Australian orders, 1 book $5.50, 2 or more $10
Overseas orders, 1 book $12, 2 books $18, 3 books or more $20.
In Adelaide, Ginninderra Press books are available at East Avenue Books, 53 East Avenue, Clarence Park 5034.
Ahmed Adam
Fish from the Sky
Follows Lara Jaq, a young Sudanese woman, as she travels through the gates of a refugee camp into a surreal world where fish fall to the earth and nothing seems to go right - until she gives up on waiting for things to happen...
1 74027 333 8, 57pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ian Alexander
Second Son
He is just one of many in the refugee camp: an old man, his wife dead, compelled to revisit the past. Unfortunately, what he finds is what he had known all along.
It is the only story there is, ever since God looked with favour on Abel and not on Cain: Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated; Ishmael is sent out into the desert, while Isaac becomes the heir; Solomon's older brother must die before he can be born to rule. The first-born dies, the second inherits: he should not have been surprised. Inherits what? I never thought to ask.
It was never going to be easy being Jesus's younger brother, especially when the woman you love only has eyes for him. Just ask Judas, the Second Son.
978 1 74017 455 5, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Christian Ayling
Harvesting Hope
Yasemin Sandulli's life spirals out of control after her brother is accused of murder. Following a torrent of events, her father must fight for his life, while her brother fights for his freedom. As Yasemin begins to question her identity and faith, she finds her answer in the most unlikely place.
'The twists and turns in this thought-provoking young-adult fiction will keep the reader enthralled to the end.' - Kathleen Stewart, Authors' Ally
978 1 74027 457 9, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Bigna
Secrets
Secrets are the stories that are often told in whispers. Secrets are the stories that sneak into our subconscious and follow us. Secrets is an innovative and exciting collection of stories by a talented emerging writer - well worth discovering.
Mockingbird 1 74027 253 6, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jane Bradhurst
A Dangerous Beauty
An intriguing story of love, jealousy and an unsolved mystery on a university campus in the 1950s, played out against the everlasting perils of sea and shore.
1 74027 354 0, 106pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tessa Bremner
An Affair With Mr Renoir
Sometimes dramatic, sometimes delicate, always to the point, Tessa Bremner’s collection of short stories presents a very poignant view of the lives of her characters and their struggle to have their voices heard above the noise of cultural sensibilities. In her storytelling, Bremner draws on a lifetime in theatre to make her characters three-dimensional and all too real.
1 74027 236 6, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
John Burless & Suzanne Nehl
Plains of Fortune
This fine novel is so soundly based on the archives of colonial Queensland and Federal Australia that it is difficult to separate the fictional family from the real characters who share the pages with them. The story follows the adventures of the Macgregor family, who go to make their fortune on the plains of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The rumbustious pioneer life in the gold fields of Croydon, and at Normanton and Burketown, is vigorously drawn. The family's letters and journals also tell of the daily life of women coping with primitive conditions - births, deaths, fires, accidents, whatever came their way. The family lives through the disaster of the 1890s depression when most banks went broke, the excitements of Federation, the terrible Federation drought, the tragedy of the Boer War and the gigantic loss of men in World War I - these were events that shaped us as the nation we became for much of the twentieth century.
978 1 74027 518 7, 508pp, $35.00 BUY NOW
David Campbell
Morning Light
'David Campbell has a deep understanding of the extra-ordinary moments to be found in the dreams, lives, loves and losses of ordinary people. In these skilfully understated and distinctly Australian stories he explores the relationships between people, place and circumstance with a clarity, intensity and sensitivity that is reminiscent of such writers as Henry Lawson, Geoffrey Dean and Tim Winton. Through finely observed detail, wonderful insights and original, memorable voices, the reader is drawn into worlds that are tender, humorous, violent, disturbing and deeply moving. An outstanding first collection from an important and exciting new writer of contemporary Australian fiction.' - Michael de Valle
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 451 7, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Rees Campbell
The Legacy
This evocative story tells of a young girl growing up within an affluent middle-class Australian family. But it is also a story shared by so many who need to overcome the violence and power wielded within the home. The Legacy uncovers the way the patchwork pieces of memory and perception gathered from childhood, through mothering and onto reflection, shape our own distinct quilts.
978 1 74027 550 7, 82pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Avril Caney
Mind the Gap
Join the unwary travellers in this collection of stories who hear or don't hear the warning to 'mind the gap', who stumble and fall, or leap and rise above the treacherous gaps they encounter.
'The narrative skill is clear and the story telling well paced.' - Sunday Tasmanian
978 1 74027 514 9, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Lucy Chesser
Cut Loose
Sumatra, land of jungles and tigers and volcanoes. And heart-stopping traffic and cheap beer and clove cigarettes. Ethan is 14 and running wild. His brother Jon, 19, knows he has to do something.
978 1 74027 509 5, 192pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Laurie Clancy
Loyalties
Whether it is a husband's sense of rejection by his wife, a university lecturer hesitating over whether he should accept a student’s invitation to sleep with him or, as in the title story,a young boy's careful balancing of his duties towards his estranged parents, these complex, honest and sometimes very funny stories concern that crucial moment at which competing allegiances have somehow to be resolved.
'Clancy has an uncanny ability...to home in on his characters' hidden flaws and weaknesses, as well as their suddenly discovered strengths.' - Canberra Times
'Clancy's stories are unflashy, well crafted...centred in the analysis and unsentimental reckoning of middle-class life in Australia.' - The Age
'What do we value in a short story? Clancy's stories satisfy all its stringent demands: for brevity yet psychological and situational development; and for that moment of illumination, of self-awareness, of resolution, which delights and satisfies the reader.' - Australian Book Review
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 415 9, 112pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Ray Clift
The Journey of Hamlin Baylis Wells
Hamlin Baylis Wells, 30 years an undercover detective, has a major decision to make. His immaculate career and religious convictions are at odds with an impulsive decision not to declare a large sum of money found during a police operation. In the resulting journey of self-discovery, he finds a way to atone for his decision.
978 1 74027 547 7, 36pp, $16.00 BUY NOW
Stanley Robert Cole
The Boy from Sweetwater Creek
Eighty-four-year-old Charlie Baker visits Sweetwater Creek for only the second time in his life. This time it is to lay flowers on the memorial which also will bear the name of Larry Foley, who died saving Charlie's life during the war. When the old digger talks to Sweetwater Creek residents about the lack of a satisfactory World War II memorial, he realises he has one more battle to fight. His only wish is that he will not have to tell how Larry Foley died. He is absolutely certain he cannot tell that story again.
978 1 74027 494 4, 54pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
T.M. Collins
Until a Shrimp Learns to Whistle
'I hope your images don't come back to haunt me when I'm in the geriatric ward.' - Gwen Harwood
'Tim Collins writes about immediate response to life's personal issues.' - Tom Shapcott
'He has a sharp eye for the implied conflicts both within the individual and as reflected in the particular society.' - Bruce Dawe
'Using strong voices, he gets inside the skin of his characters and makes the reader believe implicitly in them.' - Studio
978 1 74027 404 3, $20.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The King of Patagonia
Stories exploring the roles of men, as husbands, fathers and sons, placed in situations of emotional crisis.
'...accomplished, compassionate stories…lean and honest prose...' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 019 3, 104pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The Queen of Aegea
Stories of men and women which touch upon feelings that are usually not easily expressed.
'...skilful and resonant with male pain...' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 086 X, 118pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
Princess of Cups
'This collection...will delight with economy of expression and discerning insights.' - Canberra Times
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2004
Mockingbird 1 74027 224 2, 120pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
The Prince of Frogs
A collection of stories that dissect relationships and the way the modern world impacts upon our lives. The emotions in these stories, whether tragic or bitingly humorous, cut deep, looking at longing and loss as well as the redemptive and transformative powers of love.
'Talent and experience have produced some gems here. His prose is fluent yet unadorned, with a relaxed idiom that is especially good when portraying young Australian men.' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 435 7, 122pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
A Funny Thing Happened at 27,000 Feet
Short stories that poke a sharp satirical stick into the eye of the age of terror and refuse to conform to the political rhetoric and media sensationalism of our times.
'...short fiction that grabs the war on terror in a satirical tackle and wrestles it to the ground.' - The Age
Winner, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2006
Mockingbird 1 74027 337 0, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick
Futures Trading
Craig Cormick's latest collection of stories follows the paths of the unwinding global financial crisis, using satire and speculation to take us on journeys into near futures that could easily be our tomorrows.
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 560 6, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Craig Cormick (editor)
Winners
This collection is devoted to the best writing from the 2003 Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award and the Writers Centre Poetry Award. The poems and stories are striking in their originality, diversity and quality. They are winners in every sense of the word.
Mockingbird 1 74027 256 0, 50pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
P.S. Cottier
A Quiet Day
Stories ranging from the bizarre to the familiarly suburban, and often showing the strangeness of ordinary lives.
978 1 74027 576 7, 68pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Robert Cox
Alibis, Lies, Goodbyes
Six stories about love - unrequited, abortive, dying, and dead. In this collection Robert Cox focuses a sometimes wry, sometimes melancholy gaze on love and loneliness and the intersection where the two meet - and all too often go their own ways.
'...the work of not only a fine writer, but of a sensitive observer of human relations.' - 40º South
'...impresses for its sharp focus on the frailty and passions of life.' - Sunday Tasmanian
1 74027 376 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Robert Cox
The Clarity of Tears
Self-revelations can bring tears - and self-revelation can be brought by tears. In his latest collection of stories Robert Cox focuses sharply on both kinds of personal, painful epiphany.
'...celebrates the enduring importance of the short story form.' - Sunday Tasmanian
978 1 74027 474 1, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jen Craig
Since the Accident
In a suburban Sydney pub, a woman tells her younger sister the story of how her life has changed since a serious car accident. She speaks of the blossoming of romance, the rediscovery of her long-dormant creativity: her ability to draw. And yet an exhibition comes to nothing, a lover is abandoned. She leaves everything behind. In the driving monologue of her own narrative, the younger sister attempts to make sense of her life and the events and thoughts that have obsessed the elder since the accident.
‘...Craig is a writer of great skill.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
‘...well-written...promising debut.’ - The Compulsive Reader
978 1 74027 563 7, 196pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Georgia Dale
Deviant
'A powerful parody of where we are heading as a society.' - Mike Steketee, The Australian
1 74027 031 2, 116pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Michael de Valle
Going Home
A new collection by this very talented author.
'...offers readers significantly more than do the vast majority of the standard new fiction titles available in our bookshops, as Michael lithely walks a tightrope, effortlessly balancing readers' needs for emotional content, a challenge, character empathy and entertainment.' - Australian Reader
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 381 7, 108pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Adriana Vincent Ellis
Glass
The stories in Glass are about families, about love, connections, loss. Filled with subtle insights, they are stories of the heart. Written in a polished, clear prose, holding resonant images, they are told with a wry, sly humour.
'Ellis's acute powers of observation create subtle energy in stories of quiet spirit.' - Sydney Morning Herald
'...the reader finds in Ellis’s limpid art a sense of real wonder...' - Australian Book Review
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 388 6, 110pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Nigel Featherstone
Joy
'...pretty damn good. In fact, pretty bloody excellent.' - Christos Tsiolkas
1 74027 039 8, 179pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Neville Fletcher
Brief Candles
'...enchanting…an eclectic selection of themes ranging from science fiction to a kind of inoffensive quasi-religion, something deep-thinking readers can relate to… A joy to browse and read at one’s leisure.' - Colin Keay, Australian Physics
978 1 74027 467 8, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tracey-Anne Forbes
Crushed Sugar
In this collection of short stories, Tracey-Anne Forbes explores the gulf between illusion and reality in her protagonists' lives. In a complex presentation of womanhood, she offers an unravelling of a maze of myths. These stories encompass the joys and shocks of girlhood, marriage and family life; the final tales embrace grief and ultimate redemption.
'What makes these stories rise high and hit home is the lyricism of the language and the sheer poetry of Tracey's insights...this is, I think, what in coming years will define her as a writer.' - Venero Armanno
'It is her precise details and their Australian familiarity that breathe life into Forbes’ collection. She creates a picture through the use of original metaphors and similes that make you feel as if you are there, as if you are safe - and then pulls the rug from beneath your feet with her honesty.' - Writing Queensland
978 1 74027 412 8, 168pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Lesley Fowler
Washing My Mother's Hair
'...assured, challenging and often captivating.' - Canberra Times
Mockingbird 1 74027 111 4, 100pp, $16.50 BUY NOW
Peter Frankis
Trouble in the Garden
Travel, love, machinery, night: these are some of the funny, troubling, acute tales in Peter Frankis's first collection of stories. Enter a world of surreal and humorous lives that have hidden depths and challenging ideas.
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2005
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2005
Mockingbird 1 74027 252 8, 116pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Peter Frankis
Not a Flotation Device
Sit with Janey at the bottom of the lake, see a clerk tranformed into a magical beast, drink cask-chardonnay at the end of the world and watch the rain from a balcony at the Emerald Hotel: there's a flood of ideas and images in this second collection of Peter Frankis's short fiction.
'Frankis offers us glimpses of imaginary beings and places, which, by their very oddness, illuminate our more prosaic lives.' - Canberra Times
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2008
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 411 1, $20.00 BUY NOW
Jeremy Gadd
Country
In locations ranging from the lush tropical wetlands of the Northern Territory to the arid outback, where the landscape is so flat ‘the line between heaven and earth could have been drawn with the use of a ruler by some superior hand’, the reader encounters a variety of characters unique to rural life.
978 1 74027 458 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Beryl Gamble
Family Secrets
Beginning with one soldier's return from Gallipoli in 1916, and continuing through the years with the joys and trials of his family until 1925, Family Secrets is the story of a Melbourne family, all touched in some way by World War I, be it directly or indirectly.
978 1 74027 416 4, $26.00 BUY NOW
Beryl Gamble
And Then: More Family Secrets
The continuing story of the four McArthur sisters from 1926 to 1945, giving a picture of life as it was then in suburban Melbourne. Although fiction, many of the events are based on true incidents.
978 1 74027 534 7, $30.00 BUY NOW
Angus Gaunt
Prime Cuts
Themes of deception, betrayal and unexpected delight are woven through Angus Gaunt's first collection of stories. A maiden aunt prepares herself to be evicted from her home, and finds something wonderful happens. A father is taken in by a prodigal son's promise of worldly gains. And why does the small town so dislike the new café owners? These stories cut across time and place but all focus on the eternal frailty of the human condition.
'His stories...all bear the mark of a writer with an instinct for narrative; they are the right shape.' - Australian Book Review
'...meaty and satisfying...' - Overland
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 459 3, $18.00 BUY NOW
Marya Glyn-Daniel
The Ball's Up
A one-act play based on an incident which occurred when the author was working at Ian Allan Publishers in England, in the 1970s.
978 1 74027 438 8, $15.00 BUY NOW
Marya Glyn-Daniel
Gulf Country
A one-act play based on an incident that occurred when the playwright was travelling, on a working holiday, through North Queensland.
978 1 74027 029 8, $15.00 BUY NOW
Molly Guy
Reading Between the Lines
'Papier mâché babies, nuns reaching down throats with endoscopic tongues, cut jugulars bleeding diamonds... Molly Guy's quirky micro tales are sometimes hilarious, sometimes brutal, but, most often, both. Her characters can be inanimate props, and her props can just as easily become endearing characters. Molly Guy ruthlessly paints the world as she perceives it – weird, and oddly innocent, and, almost certainly, brimming with a compelling and banal savagery. I cried until I laughed!' - Philomena van Rijswijk
978 1 74027 581 1, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Julia Haisley
The Good Samaritan
When a boat carrying asylum seekers is wrecked south of Adelaide, local teenager Josh hides one of the escapees in his shed. The struggle to keep Habib hidden leads Josh to face formerly unknown challenges to his cosy, comfortable world. The tension builds as Josh combats different threats to Habib's safety, culminating in an exciting climax on the day of his sister's wedding.
‘...an interesting slant on the story of the Good Samaritan...a worthwhile read...’ - Evangelicals Now
978 1 74027 520 0, 120pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Leonie Hall
Two Shillings & other stories
Leonie Hall has always lived in central Victoria. She began writing when the last of her children left home and to date has had three novels published plus short stories in magazines and anthologies. She is married and has six children, numerous grandchildren and one great grandchild. As well as her first love, writing, her interests vary from volunteer work to handcrafts, reading, singing and walking, and she has also travelled widely.
978 1 74027 535 4, 48pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Rebecca Hayman
God & Other Problems
If life had followed the path Linda had planned for it, then she need never have bothered with God. But unable to find regular work, Linda struggled against poverty, loneliness and purposelessness. Divine silence accentuated the accumulation of disappointment, and church merely muddied the issue. Stillness and solitude offered an unlikely way forward.
Shortlisted for The Australian Vogel Award in 2000
978 1 74027 393 0, 154pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Elanna Herbert
Frieda & the Cops
Elanna Herbert effectively grasps the complex dual nature of life in suburban Canberra of decades past, showing the smooth veneer of suburban normality and the hidden underside of isolation, family conflict or personal lives spinning out of control. The collection makes rich and inviting reading.
Runner-up, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2006
Mockingbird 1 74027 303 6, 105pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Steve Holden
The Bird in the Egg and other stories
'Steve Holden is a master of the brief narrative and telling episode. His stories eddy with myriad significances even as they present recognisable places and people. They successfully conjure the restlessness and idiosyncrasy of humanity and persuasively explore the mysteriousness of human motivation and circumstance. These haunting stories speak about domestic intimacies, individual aspirations and the ways people choose to live together and apart. They are consistently probing, luminous and insightful.' - Paul Hetherington
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2009
978 1 74027 491 3, 90pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Robert Horne
Undergrowth
Robert Horne's fascinating range of characters haunt the bars, porches and offices of Adelaide looking for answers to questions about themselves. They are often angry, frustrated and confused, but always seeking an opportunity for change. This book of stories is at once challenging and life-affirming.
1 74027 276 5, 68pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ann Howard
Bonsai Ballerina
'Undoubtedly you write well...your work reminds me of Di Morrissey...your best writing reminds me of Delia Falconer (The Service of Clouds) at her best...' - Kate Llewellyn
1 74027 379 6, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Madeleine Huxtable
The Flight of the Scorpion
On Saturday 7 March 1942, 12 RAF and RAAF personnel set sail from Tjilatjap, Java, in a 30-foot wooden lifeboat. Their mission: to reach Roebourne on the northern coast of West Australia and bring rescue to the remaining airmen trapped on the island who were in danger of being captured by the enemy. Written in memory of the author's father, RAAF Flight Sergeant William Nicholas Pax Cosgrove (1918-1943) of Richmond, Victoria, who was a member of that crew. The names, dates and some events are true. The rest is fiction.
1 74027 294 3, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Angela Johnson
No Stories, No Songs
'Concealed between the covers of Angela Johnson's collection of short stories is a delightful smorgasbord of autobiographical and imagined writing. Beginning with an insight into poverty and relationships through a child's eyes, it then moves to a more adult, at times disturbing but no less insightful, view of the world. A frisson of terror adds to the pleasure. In short, an enjoyable and at times thought-provoking collection of things that make you go hmmm...' - Mark d'Arbon
978 1 74027 564 4, 66pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Tiggy Johnson
Svetlana or Otherwise
'Tiggy's is a new voice with a refreshingly domestic bent. From controlled crying and the quiet relief of a cup of tea, to pregnancy tests gone wrong; from neighbourly suspicion, to the suspicion that can tear relationships apart, Tiggy is writing about the everyday, the things we know, and, most importantly, the things we know we should know better. It is energising to read a writer who understands the importance of life’s details, and who celebrates the small moments of decision and indecision that take us from day’s beginning to day's end.' - Louise Swinn, Sleepers Publishing
'Her tight, clean sentences are a pleasure to read and keep our attention.' - The Age
'Johnson has a fine grasp of the form in both a commercial and an artistic sense.' - Literary Minded
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 461 6, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sharon Kernot
In the Shadows of the Garden
Sharon Kernot presents an assortment of short stories that reside and crackle in the tense spaces of suburban Australia. She writes about poverty, addiction and difficult relationships. Her stories revolve around suburban streets; they dip into the local shopping mall, the welfare office, community centre and the neighbour’s house. There is much darkness in these pages but there is also light, laughter and hope.
‘These stories, concisely but movingly, take the small moments of life, the small losses, and from them whole lives are given to us. We are grateful for the truth in these stories, which fill us with their larger overtones.’ - Tom Shapcott
978 1 74027 584 2, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Chris Leckonby
Once Bitten
Chris Leckonby grew up in post-war rural Yorkshire, married a farmer and spent ten years on the family farm, where she enjoyed brief success writing freelance articles for Farmers Weekly. In 1972 with their four children, the couple emigrated and settled in the suburbs of Adelaide. The family moved to the Adelaide hills, and Chris trained as a teacher. Retirement brought the chance to write again, and this is Chris's first book of short stories.
978 1 74027 593 4, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Pat Lindsay
The Seeds of a Pomegranate
'Pat Lindsay is an accomplished storyteller who is unafraid to explore the darker side of society as well as its more engaging aspects. Her compact tales of contemporary Australian life have energy and pace and her characters are convincing. Read one story in this collection and you will want to read every one.' - Beverly George
1 74027 318 4, 212pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Michelle Lopert
Happy Families & Other Delusions
In this collection of award-winning stories, Michelle Lopert delves into the darker side of human nature. With humour and sharpness, she explores the disturbing aspects of unhappy relationships. Greed, jealousy and thwarted desires merge with tales of paranoia and revenge. The voices are distinct, the emotions honest, and the endings are often surprising. These spare, punchy stories will intrigue the reader long after the final page is read.
978 1 74027 499 9, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Brendan Mackie
Lonely in Crowds
Brendan Mackie captures the voices of young people, searching for something that is difficult to even grasp in words - yet Brendan's stories touch on those longings in ways that make you feel you understand them.
Mockingbird 1 74027 211 0, 116pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Stephen Matthews (editor)
Secrets
Keeping secrets can lead to all sorts of problems and misunderstandings as these 10 terrific children's stories show. (Stories selected from the 2006 Ginninderra Press short story for children competition)
Winner, Children's, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
978 1 74027 395 4, 100pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Annabelle McEntyre
Death at The Downs
Murder at Mella Downs. Several suspects, but who is the killer, and will he strike again? This is Annabelle McEntyre's second book. Several of her short stories have been published; some have won awards. Annabelle writes to entertain readers and hopes this book will do just that. She is working on a third novel and there are more in the pipeline.
978 1 74027 597 2, 42pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Andrea McMahon
Skin Hunger
Skin Hunger explores the emotional and physical craving for touch, for human contact, in all its varied guises. Andrea McMahon's stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania, with her three children and for most of the past twenty years has had the good fortune to work as a cataloguer with the State Library of Tasmania.
'...impressive for...their range and...their restrained tone.' - Sunday Tasmanian
'Few emerging writers exhibit such an understanding of the form's true nature, the epiphanic potential of the ordinary... A welcome addition to Tasmanian letters...' Hobart Mercury
978 1 74027 513 2, 108pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Murray McNair
Captain Kreel's Contraband
Shattered by his internment with the rest of the Vienna Mozart Boys Choir in September 1939, Joseph Geinler is sent to live out the world war in a tiny Western Australian wheatbelt town. A personal dream and the help of some unlikely friends leads him to set out on a remarkable journey in an attempt to reach his homeland and end the Second World War.
978 1 74027 420 3, 88pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Kim Miller
Insiders
'With a wry humour, Kim Miller describes disturbingly Australian stories of crime, perplexity and illusion... These intricate outcast characters will appeal to those who remember that Australia.' - Dr Craig San Roque
Mockingbird 1 74027 336 2, 122pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Mondays at Tilley's
Humorous and serious poems and stories by six Canberra writers who met over coffee at Tilley Devine’s Café Gallery in the Canberra suburb of Lyneham on Mondays.
1 74027 016 9, 224pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
John Morley
The Good Intent
Sleeping with a co-worker, parties with friends, buying cereal, writing poetry or catching the bus - what could possibly go wrong? The Good Intent is a collection of stories about the everyday and the exceptional day. If you’re lucky, you just might finish up in front.
1 74027 364 8, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Anthony Noack
Eaglemont
A young boy spends a day wandering through the Melbourne suburb of Eaglemont interacting in his imagination with the historical figures who shaped it. Through the original inhabitants of the area, the artists of the Heidelberg School and the architect of the estate, Walter Burley Griffin, he seeks to learn all he can about the land around him.
978 1 74027 528 6, 40pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Sean O'Leary
My Town
Sean O'Leary takes us on an itinerant journey around the country in this collection of linked stories that moves from cheap motels to hostels and the roads between them. He captures his key character, Stevie, in moments of crisis and decision that keeps him moving, running from one confrontation to encounter another. There is a gritty honesty to his work that makes it captivating to read.
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 590 3, 110pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Ryan O'Neill
Six Tenses
In these stories, a dying man thinks on the past. A foreign schoolgirl studying English learns only betrayal. A bookmark keeps a novel open for a father and a son. And it is found that a hundred words are not enough to tell a life.
'...written with such mastery that it is a joy to read... Ryan O'Neill is a name worth watching for.' - Newcastle Herald
Mockingbird 1 74027 299 4, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ryan O'Neill
A Famine in Newcastle
An exhilarating new collection of stories from the Newcastle-based author of Six Tenses.
Shortlisted, Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award 2007
Mockingbird 1 74027 360 5, 62pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Louise Pakeman
Time Away
Much of Louise Pakeman's short fiction has appeared in magazines in Australia and England and in anthologies but she is better known for her full-length novels. Louise was born in England but has lived in Australia since 1968. The stories in this collection reflect her belief that we are all, people and animals, part of the Divine.
978 1 74027 529 3, 60pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Gordon Reid
Across the Plains
Stories giving a picture of life in the small towns, on the lonely farms and vast sheep stations of the Riverina district of New South Wales.
'...a varied and strong collection...a lively portrait of country Australia...' - Australian Book Review
1 876259 54 X, 280pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Gordon Reid
Hornet Bank
Just before dawn late in 1857, Aborigines crept up on a sleeping homestead in the Dawson River valley, central Queensland, and slaughtered eight members of the Fraser family and three employees. In the retribution by the Native Mounted Police and white vigilantes, at least three hundred Aborigines died. In this historical novel, the story of Hornet Bank is told thirty-five years later by Thomas Scott, son of the founder. He has good reason for meditating on the meaning of the Fraser massacre. His wife has been raped recently by an Aborigine at the station and now she is pregnant. Day after day they wait to see whether the child will be his or the rapist's. And, as each day passes, the strain on husband and wife creeps closer to breaking point.
978 1 74027 573 6, 308pp, $30.00 BUY NOW
Harry Saddler
We Both Know: 10 stories about relationships
Harry Saddler was raised in Canberra and now lives in Melbourne, where he writes an online serial, Instant Life Substitute.
174027 298 6, 64pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Harry Saddler
Small Moments
An engrossing short novel set in Canberra at the time of the devastating 2003 bushfires.
978 1 74027 425 8, 140pp, $22.00 BUY NOW
Mal Sanderson
Old Wood New Fires
Janus, the Roman god of doors, of beginnings and endings, symbolises change and transition, past into future, one vision into another. Old Wood New Fires explores such journeys. As the enigmatic woman in 'Silent Communion' puts it, 'Some must travel from mind to heart. Others will travel from the heart to mind. It all comes to the same thing in the end, I suppose. If one is to understand.'
978 1 74027 517 0, 98pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Duncan N. Sargeant
Ship of Fools
Hundreds of years ago there was a theory. Put a bunch of mentally ill men on a sailing ship on the high seas, sail them away and by the time they returned home they would be cured. It was a ludicrous idea, but that didn't stop the doctors from trying it.
978 1 74027 401 2, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Vicky Sentana
Buried Alive
There’s a little bit of Sarah in all of us… Sarah is in a psychiatric hospital. They watch her twenty-four hours a day. She lives in a haze of drugs and no one will tell her why she's there. Worst of all, they're planning to let her out.
978 1 74027 465 4, $17.50 BUY NOW
Alice Shore
Circles in Sand
Five engaging tales about feminine strength and integrity.
1 74027 235 8, 62pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Rory Steele
Ghosts in the Helmet Trees
In World War II, Italian partisans became a thorn in the side of the German occupiers. This is the story of Tommaso, who left his partisan colleagues during their last stand and slipped through the attackers to reach his beloved Loredana, daughter of a Fascist official.
'Rory Steele is an energetic and sensuous writer and he weaves the two strands of his narrative together with considerable skill.' - The Age
Winner, Fiction, ACT Writing & Publishing Awards 2007
978 1 74027 383 1, 284pp, $27.50 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
While Others Dream
Some dream sweetly in their beds at night. For others, one small mistake, a chance encounter, brings nightmares.
'...short sharp writing that hooks with the first line and twists a knife in the guts in the last.' - Yass Tribune
Mockingbird 1 74027 287 0, 72pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
Cry of the Curlew
The kookaburra laughs, the robin sings, But the stone-curlew wails mournfully in the dark of night. So too it is with man. More stories by the author of While Others Dream.
1 74027 363 X, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Sandy Sutherland
Heroes
Everyone’s a hero and everyone’s a coward, some time. New stories from the author of Cry of the Curlew.
978 1 74027 551 4, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Vicki Thornton
Last Days of Summer
Passionate, powerful and poetic, Vicki Thornton, a master of brevity, writes of relationships, of breaking free, with a lack of emotionalism, a sparseness that leaves the reader gasping for more. With a minimalist hand, she captures a sense of scene, mood, time then allows the reader in to feel the protagonist's brokenness, her emotional distance as a relationship dies. Visual, succinct and believable. - Joy Dettman
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 463 0, $17.50 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Dreaming Australia
Blood flows on the war-torn streets of Masar e-Sharif. To try to cope with that, and barbarous Taliban rule, Soraya illegally reads and attends a secret girls' school. But when her mother is killed in a missile attack, all Soraya’s girlish dreams and aspirations appear to be crushed forever.
'...moving and exciting. Tolbert's narrative moves along at a satisfying pace.' - Viewpoint
174027 288 9, 162pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Surfing for Wayan
In the title story, seventeen-year-old Jacob returns to Bali. Once terrified of surfboards, he’s there to surf wild for four people, including his brother killed in the 2002 Bali bombing.
'...reassuringly local while addressing universal themes and incorporating Asian references.' - Sunday Tasmanian
1 74027 353 2, 102 pages, $18.50 BUY NOW
Steve Tolbert
Packing Smack, Talking Wombats
A thrilling novel for young adults. Both of them fleeing the outside world, eighteen-year-old Jackson and reclusive Pete meet on the remote east coast of Flinders Island. Unfortunately, the place is not remote enough.
'Steve Tolbert has intertwined two contrasting worlds and produced a riveting and engrossing novel. It evokes powerfully both the violence and police corruption of the drug scene in the Melbourne underworld as well as it does the natural beauty of Flinders Island and the integrity of the people who live there. The writing is superb and has left me with a longing to visit Flinders Island while allowing me the illusion that I know so much about it already.' - Viewpoint
978 1 74027 407 4, $22.50 BUY NOW
Jackie Tritt
Unfettered Feet
A collection of stories about breaking free, through migration, through changes in relationships and through personal growth.
978 1 74027 421 0, 79pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Tuggeranong WORD Group
Postcard from Canberra
A diverse collection of poems and stories by Peter Burbrook, Helen Cunningham, June Foster and Daphne Hargreaves.
1 74027 270 6, 128pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Sue Varteg
Infinity Is a Big Place
A number of Sue Varteg's short stories have been published in various magazines, but this is the first time any of her stories have been published as a collection.
978 1 74027 595 8, 74pp, $18.50 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
A Conversation with Emily
Literary creation and motherhood are often likened to each other. In this collection, Zenda Vecchio shows that the similarity need not be a playful way of speaking so much as a bizarre reality.
'...a talented writer...' - Tamba
1 74027 076 2, 48pp, $15.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Mavis
This novella projects the forest-dark world of ancient folklore into modern middle-class domesticity.
1 74027 066 5, 56pp, $15.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Children at the Gate
Childhood is another country: they do things differently there. Zenda Vecchio’s double gift is to be able to remember that strange land (which adults generally forget or unconsciously falsify) and to re-present it in elegant, economical prose. These - often dark - stories are compelling reminders of a world we all once lived in.
'Zenda Vecchio maintains her distinctive storytelling voice throughout this engaging foray into the journeys towards self-identity...' - Tamba
1 74027 317 6, 67pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Zenda Vecchio
Tiger! Tiger!
We all hunt one another. Obsessed from childhood with William Blake's poem 'The Tiger', award-winning author Zenda Vecchio has used it in this collection of short stories to explore the relationship between predator and prey in the lives of her characters.
978 1 74027 489 0, 76pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ken Vincent
Butterfly Girl
Tracy would give anything to be popular instead of a figure of fun. Though she is intelligent beyond her years, neither her family nor those in her school can see past her obesity. Tracy finds herself rejected by her father, isolated from her siblings and living with an alcoholic mother. After experiencing horrors no young woman should have to endure, she is taken into care, where she experiences the strengths and weaknesses of the system.
978 1 74027 548 4, 58pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ken Vincent
Chains of Fear
This thrilling novel follows the life of a young woman, Nancy Overton, as she flees from a brutal marriage. She is pursued by her ex-husband, who has always threatened to kill her if she left him. She hides away on a Queensland cattle station, where she meets Joe, the owner’s son, but even there her ex-husband finds her and makes several attempts on her life. Good friends help to keep her safe but over time she changes from the innocent victim into a strong resilient woman who is well able to care for herself, and she fights back. With this new-found confidence, she pursues a singing career and achieves international success. She is reluctant to commit to any new relationship but in the end she cannot deny her love for Joe.
'...an absorbing plot with believable characters facing modern day situations with courage and resilience.' - ARPA News
978 1 74027 574 3, 230pp, $26.00 BUY NOW
Sonya Voumard
Political Animals
Political Animals explores the inner workings of Canberra life: the mutually exploitative relationship between politics and the media; the factional infighting; the sexual tension; the political deal-making; the fragility of ethics when ambition and career advancement take priority.compulsively readable. It is very much a novel of our times.
'Political Animals grabs you immediately. A convincing story of political intrigue in Australia, it keeps you hooked until the end. The book will capture the imagination of anyone with a sliver of interest in contemporary Australian realpolitik. Part of what I loved about this book was the voice of the narrator, a sassy, independent though always vulnerable thirty-something Canberra journo whose creator never allows her to fall into the stereotypical traps awaiting her... I want to describe it as chick lit grows up but know that description clouds the serious moral vision the author brings to her writing. Voumard is a new writer with a new voice and a new vision.' - Ian Syson
'...political junkies will find much that is fascinating, such as the back-stabbing by staffers and the conflicts of interest between the main players. Voumard's extensive experience allows her to capture the nuances of working in the media and the blurring of the lines between reporting and campaigning... Overall, however, she has done a very good job of putting the reader in the middle of some tense action.' - Canberra Times
'Credible characters and a storyline that explores important issues without sanctimony or contrivance make for a powerful debut from one who knows the circus well.' - Qantas Magazine
'...bears the unmistakable stamp of authenticity...a well-written novel...' - Sydney Morning Herald
'...a sharp, dark and credibly drawn descent into the benthic relationship between Australian politicians and the media. With so many cookie-cutter political thrillers around, it’s refreshing to read one that’s so savage and true to life.' - The Age
'This ambitious novel tackles a heady mix of moral issues juxtaposed against personal and political histories in a contemporary setting.' - Australian Book Review
978 1 74027 502 6, 218pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Lisa Wardle
Reflections
‘There are no distortions in the mirror facing the world of Lisa Wardle’s Reflections. Predators lurk on beaches, in homes and under the characters’ own skin. Both strangers and family members are kept at more than an arm’s length. People are hurt, full of holes and walking alone. Uncertainty, fear, and mortality haunt these characters and narratives. The weight and smell of genetics and personal history come to play. Shifts occur and regrets surface from past to present. Sometimes bonds are formed - uncommon, even strange. At other times, the strains on trapped relationships are ultimately and joyously broken. Mainly, the negative behaviours - learned, inherited, or spawned through ill-treatment - live on, in Wardle’s accessible prose which captures each character’s distinct, colloquial voice and acts to shock, rattle and ultimately awaken the reader.’ - Angela Meyer (LiteraryMinded)
Mockingbird 978 1 74027 588 0, 76 pages, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jen Webb
Ways of Getting By
Jen Webb's characters confront the demands of relationships and work in a rural city surrounded by drought, and their stories are filled with an authentic taste of gentle loneliness and the ways people find of getting by.
Mockingbird 1 74027 343 5, 96pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Peter Weir
A Garden of Delights
These stories by a Barossa Valley writer take you from the fires of Hell to the lonely world of a motherless boy, with many stops in between.
978 1 74027 387 9, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Maurice Whelan
Boat People
'In this refreshing novel, Maurice Whelan addresses with bravery and skill the eternal reality of Australia, that we are a nation of refugees.' - Tom Keneally
'This compelling novel is woven from archetypal stories which make up the tapestry of white settlement in Australia. Economic refugees from Ireland during the potato famine; political refugees fleeing persecution in the middle east. Their stories are powerfully similar, but also different in significant ways. The latest to arrive seem destined to try hardest, but to be singled out for hard treatment.' - Julian Burnside
'Everyone from 18 to 80 should read this book.' - Clare Calvet (ABC Radio)
'This book raised the hair on the back of my neck, which is one definition of a really good novel. Written with great energy and urgency, which are rare and precious qualities.' - Bob White, Professor of English, UWA
978 1 74027 474 8, 242pp, $22.50 BUY NOW
Ian Wilkinson
Storms
Ian Wilkinson has a Bachelor of Architecture from Melbourne University and a Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing & Editing) from Peninsula TAFE, Frankston. He is a winner of the City of Brisbane Short Story Award and runner up in the Fellowship of Australian Writers Jim Hamilton Award for unpublished manuscripts. In these stories he charts a path through the stormy landscapes of personal relationships and in doing so takes the reader from the heart of Australian cities to its outer suburbs and coastal fringes, and from Oxford, UK, to Glasgow in Scotland. He takes you through bushfires, wild storms and into the souls of his characters. Join in the journey.
'With each of Ian Wilkinson’s short stories we see him flex his literary muscles. We watch how he weaves his way back and forward in time, how sharp his dialogue is and how skilfully he can take us to a particular place.' - The Age
978 1 74027 526 2, 74pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Jane Williams
Other Lives
'Jane Williams gets inside the intimate moment hovering there at the cusp between the real and the imagined. She tells this moment from the inside out, small worlds spring to vivid life, and the human condition shines in all its flawed dignity. These are stories to touch the trigger of the soul – I will read them over and over again.' - Pete Hay
978 1 74027 432 6, 37pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Kate Willson
Race for Home
Axel Flanagan can’t believe that one minute he’s lounging in the beanbag, eating cheese and onion chips and racing cars on his new Playstation game and the next he’s driving a real Monaro on a real racetrack amidst real racing cars.
'...an enjoyable book for those who like the excitement of games. It has enough adventure in it to attract readers who may not find the game side of it appealing and the inclusion of female characters might just attract female readers.' - buzzwordsmagazine.com
978 1 74027 439 5, 95pp, $20.00 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
Holy Orders
The first of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 482 1, 70pp, $18.00 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
The Immortal Game
The second of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 515 6, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Ray Wilson
Waking Dream
The third of three novellas by the author of the poetry collections Resurrection and Alpha & Omega.
978 1 74027 516 3, 56pp, $17.50 BUY NOW
Jacqueline Winn
Once More With Feeling
These award-winning short stories will take you on a journey of the imagination that celebrates the wonderful diversity of human life and cannot help but leave you looking at the world through different eyes.
1 74027 370 2, 154pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Jacqueline Winn
Salt & Pepper
Another rich assortment of short stories guaranteed to amuse one moment and touch your heart the next. All of these stories have won literary awards in Australia, New Zealand, Britain or Ireland. This is a collection that is sure to leave a lasting impression.
978 1 74027 569 9, 152pp, $24.00 BUY NOW
Jena Woodhouse
Farming Ghosts
On a Queensland farm in the aftermath of World War II, Harry Vance’s dream becomes his daughter-in-law’s nightmare. Reminiscent of Chekhov’s landlocked characters, those whose lives are circumscribed by Harry and his farm, Rosewood, long for empowerment and freedom of choice. Volatile energies and unspoken desires simmer beneath the surface of the Vances’ world, which crumbles under irresistible pressures, bequeathing a legacy that enters the psyche as heartbreaking landscapes and haunting dreamscapes.
‘...written in a poet’s prose, dense with imagery and unexpected turns of language and thought…explores the implications of white settlement, the effect on an extended family of two world wars, changes in rural life and the gap between dreams and reality that can, if wide enough, wreck someone’s life.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
978 1 74027 556 9, 200pp, $25.00 BUY NOW
Julian Woods
Next Stop, Goulburn
Twelve stories reflecting scattered segments of Australian life in southern NSW in the latter half of the twentieth century. The author writes of human types and situations and tries to create significance from the chaos of experience.
'Woods shows characters having personal epiphanies or just being their idiosyncratic selves whether on a train journey or in the presence of fascinating others.' - Canberra Times
1 74027 326 5, 324pp, $26.00 BUY NOW
Stephen Matthews Ginninderra Press PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015
stephen@ginninderrapress.com.au
www.ginninderrapress.com.au
ABN 42 447 290 724