Earlier this year I had a short piece about grief published in Meniscus. I wrote it a couple of years ago during the passing of a close colleague and friend, Martin Hallett, from motor neurone disease. I submitted the piece to several outlets and it almost made it into Bellevue Literary Review (one of the nicest and most affirming rejection notes I’ve received) as well as a couple of other literary journals. I’m glad that it has finally found a home in Volume 9, Issue 2 of Meniscus.
It was a lot of fun (and a good distraction from the covid crazy) to dabble in a drabble and create a little piece – exactly 100 words – for the Black Hare Press Ancients anthology.
Edited by the very excellent Dean Kershaw, you can buy it here.
As I write this, the west coast of the US is burning. A sad synergy.
My story, ‘Burning Hearts’, in the Oz Is Burning anthology.
Put together by B Cubed Press, the collection is a response to Australia’s 2019-2020 summer and supports wildlife charity WIRES. The ebook version is available and print is coming soon.
Here’s the table of contents (which I nicked from Jason Nahrung’s site, thanks Jason!):
And Gaia Screams by Ann Poore
Across the Ditch by Clare Rhoden
Burn, Burn! by Almas Alexander
Red Sky at Morning by Sue Bursztynski
Fires of the Heart by E.E. King
Pay Back by Alex Isle
By the Grace of God by Harold Gross
Should Fire Remember the Fuel by Kyla Lee Ward
Welcoming the End by Aura Redwood
Beef by Zena Shapter
The Last Wish by Lauren E. Mitchell
Wollemi Dreaming by Jason Nahrung
Firestorm Sounds by Suzanne Newnham
Red Sky, Blue Dream by Jack Dann
Infestation by Paula Boer
Writing on the Wall by Gillian Polack
Dire Insurance by Jared Kavanaugh
Divorce by Donna J.W. Munro
Inconvenient Visitor by Lucy Sussex
Burning Hearts by Eleanor Whitworth
Harvest by Narrelle M. Harris
A Town Called Hope by Silvia Brown
I got snapped this year as part of the AUSNZ SF Snapshot. Hats off to Tehani Croft for all her hard work. Amazing. I highly recommend taking a wander through the author pages and picking up some book recommendations (warning, you may well lose an hour without noticing).
Here’s the landing page
And here’s me
Screen Shot 2020 AUSNZ SF Snapshot
My story, ‘The Everlasts’, can be found in Aussie Speculative Fiction’s anthology, Stories of Hope. Born from the smoke and ashes of the 2019 Australian summer, Stories of Hope is an anthology of fantasy and science fiction. All money raised from sales will be donated to WWF’s Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund and the Red Cross Disaster Relief & Recovery Fund. Please: buy it!
I recently received these gorgeous story editions of the very talented artist, Megumi Matsubara, which I had the pleasure of editing. There’s nothing quite like holding the object in your hands. The editions feature an essay by Yuko Hasegawa and cut-up by Loris Greaud.
I collaborated with my friend, photographer Sarah Rhodes, to write her artist statement for the Lumina Collective’s Echoes exhibition. The images explore identity and are stunning. The exhibition and text were featured in The Guardian in Jan 2019.
In 2018, I was lucky to be accepted into HARDCOPY, the national professional development program run by the ACT Writers Centre. In their own words: “HARDCOPY aims to develop writers who will have longevity as Australian writers.”
What an amazing experience to work with Nadine Davidoff and have exposure to other industry heavyweights.
In addition to the skills and knowledge I’ve gained – and possibly even more importantly – I’ve met some wonderful people.
After being published in SQ Magazine in June, my story A Thousand Million Small Things has made the SF&F genre’s premiere review magazine, Tangent, Online Recommended Reading List for 2017. Yay!
Changemaker
Last year, I co-edited and contributed to the publication: Museums, Collections and Communities: reflections on the life of Martin Hallett. A collection of essays, the ebook documents the work of Australian museums over the last 40 years, charting critical shifts in practice.
Martin worked hard to make museums a catalyst for positive social change, in which everyone has a voice and has ownership. His work influenced critical shifts in practice, including new models for community engagement; diversification of collections and stories; the introduction of context interpretation in exhibitions; new approaches to conservation, restoration, and documentation; and increasing work with regional stories and collections. Not to mention, his designing of the original digital catalogue that became KE-Emu, now used in major museums around the world.
Martin began digital painting in his retirement. One of his artworks graces the cover: