1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? I can’t remember a particular moment of inspiration, but I suppose the story ‘Pause’ formed around ideas about memory and absence, and the accumulation of a few images: bits of gravel and Redhead matches, tree frogs and tropical fruits, blue … Read More
interviews
Spineless Wonders asks Stu Hatton
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? ‘meds’ I wrote a few weeks after I began taking a medication for depression and anxiety. ‘refuse’ arose from some diary-like jottings in my notebook. It was begun many years ago and has been chipped away at, smoothed and roughed … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Anna Couani
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? The piece called The Old Manuscript was inspired by two things, one was a sculpture I saw in the 2012 Sculpture by the Sea show in Bondi and the other was thoughts about an unfinished manuscript I started writing many years … Read More
What we talk about when we talk about collections and anthologies.Part 1: The Reviewers
I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat. Sylvester Stallone It’s not often that I find myself thinking the same way as Sly, but when The First Tuesday Book Club recently turned down my suggestion to discuss our anthology, Escape, on their … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Adam Ford
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? I spent weeks walking past a poster for that Cowboys and Aliens film and I got to wondering why it is that in science fiction mashup movies the two cultures always have to be in conflict with each other (answer: … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Moya Costello
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? These were extracted from my unpublished PhD novella ‘Harriet Chandler’. The novella is a hybrid text of prose poem and prose fiction, but also in terms of content: art, ecocriticsm, fictional biography etc. I am very conscious of ecocriticism, or … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Kent MacCarter
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/micro-fiction which is published in Small Wonder? For ‘Light Foxing’, it was a confluence of events and pet likes. I think similar to most people interested in books-as-artefacts, I’m agog for the crumbling, musty hardbacks that line both the shelves of discerning antiquarian bookseller and bargain bins … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Erin Gough
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in Small Wonder? I lived in Vancouver briefly a number of years ago and remember a Canadian friend of mine telling me proudly that instant mashed potato was a Canadian invention. This struck me as a hilarious thing to be proud of, until … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Ryan O’Neill
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Of writers outside Australia, I love Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Katherine Mansfield and Vladimir Nabokov. There are many Australian short story writers I love. In the 1970s Peter Carey and Murray Bail wrote some of the best short fiction … Read More
small wonder: Charles D’Anastasi
1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which is published in small wonder? I like to build poems out of small incidents that take place around me. ‘Madame Bovary’ grew out of such an incident. During a poetry reading while listening to one of the poets, I became aware of the sound of … Read More