Fiction
The Penguin Best Stories Of D’Arcy Niland by D’Arcy Niland, selected with introduction by Ruth Park
by D. J. O’Hearn •
Four auspicious début collections by Mandy Beaumont, Dominic Carew, Wayne Marshall, and Sean O'Beirne
by Susan Midalia •
The American writer Jack Matthews had no time for what he called ‘a discontent’ with the brevity of the short story. ‘Ask a coral snake,’ he declared, ‘which is as deadly as it is small.’ The claim for ‘deadliness’ certainly applies to four recent début collections; in the tight spaces of the short story, each one presents confronting ideas about contemporary Australia.
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