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ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

Jolley Prize 2018 (Shortlisted): 'Ruins' by Madelaine Lucas

by •
August 2018, no. 403
ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

Jolley Prize 2018 (Shortlisted): 'Ruins' by Madelaine Lucas

by •
August 2018, no. 403

In the car we wound around the bay, which, on the map, made the shape of an ear with a tear-shaped island off the coast like a jewel earring. My mother and I were going to see the lighthouse out on the cape – or what was left of it anyway, which was not much, she told me, but stones and rubble. Sandstone stump crowning the headland.

Worth documenting though, she said, since we’re staying so close by.

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Madelaine Lucas

Madelaine Lucas is an Australian writer and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the senior editor of NOON literary annual and a teaching fellow at Columbia University, where she is completing her MFA in fiction. She has been the winner of the Overland/Victoria University Short Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Griffith University Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize. She is currently at work on her first novel.

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Comments (3)

  • Wow. I loved this story. Well done to the author and congratulations.
    Posted by Story Lover
    26 August 2018
  • This is such beautiful writing, tumbling with glittering imagery, mystery, desire and grief. You have made a wise choice to crown this winner.
    Posted by Jen Jewel Brown
    23 August 2018
  • Yes, an interesting and well written story - bravo !!!

    Just one thing, shotguns don't have 'bullets'... the have metal pellets in a capsule.
    It wouldn't have made a hole in her temple, it would have blown her head to smithereens.
    Posted by Peter
    21 August 2018

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