Publisher: Stringybark Publishing
Pages: 194
Forty-four award-winning stories from the Stringybark Short Story Awards 2023
Edited by David Vernon
Forty-four short stories are showcased in Stringybark Stories’ largest ever anthology of award-winning short stories. Selected from 360 entries from Australia and around the world, these stories are quirky, clever, poignant, sometimes sad, occasionally scary, sporadically funny, but always entertaining. They are a ripper read. Feral is contemporary short story writing at its best.
She found Julia sitting on her bed with her legs straight out, holding the shell to her ear. Her eyes were wide and seemed to stare through her bedroom wall, eastwards, to the horizon.
“Come on, Darling, dinnertime.â€
Julia didn’t move. Rachel had never seen her so transfixed without an electronic device in her hands. She clicked her fingers: “Hello, Earth to Julia!â€
— From ‘The Shell’ by Penny Durham
As if in uniform to go to the beach, an Australian Saturday custom, the women wore sun-tops and shorts, the men, swimming gear and unbuttoned shirts. Joy favoured the ventilation of an African wraparound green and red skirt for the walk home in the heat. The red light flashed, and the crowd bunched as they reached a pedestrian crossing. Joy overheard a woman’s whispered broadside, “I’m your romantic other, not your wife.â€
— From ‘Song of the Frangipani’ by Rosemary Lewis