1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? I tend find inspiration from different authors at different times, depending on what I’m writing. At the moment my book pile is stuffed with shorts by John Updike, Ray Bradbury, John Cheever, Shirley Jackson and Julio Cortazar. I’ve also read … Read More
interviews
Spineless Wonders Asks Irma Gold
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Some of my favourite contemporary Australian short fiction writers are Cate Kennedy, Nam Le, Helen Garner, Marion Halligan, Gillian Mears and John Clanchy. For the ‘otherwise’ who can possibly go past Alice Munro? And then there are the greats of … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Sophie Constable
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? *has a terrible urge to read thousands more stories to make an informed decision…comes back to earth reluctantly* I know I should be saying Saki, Emily Perkins, Turgenev, Oliver Sacks, Paul Jennings, (because it’s true, I do admire them all) … Read More
Little Bleeders 2 Talking short crime with A.S. Patric
This week, The Column asks Alec Patric, winner of the 2011 SD Harvey Short Story Award about writing short Australian crime. I spent years reading prose that was lit up with insights and revelations. Dense with psychological verisimilitude. That exposed all the nuances of our most precious relationships. Years with tortured prose that demanded a … Read More
Spineless Wonders Asks Lucy Sussex
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Chekhov, for ‘The Lady With a Little Dog’. Mary Fortune, who as Waif Wander wrote 500 pioneering crime stories for the Australian Journal between 1865-1909. James Tiptree Jr, alias Alice Sheldon, the great American science fiction writer. Ellen Davitt’s 1867 … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Emmett Stinson
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Uh, I like the pretty standard kind of literary, ‘intellectual’ short story writers that, or so it seems to me, are liked by slightly pretentious, overeducated bourgeois dudes like myself. So people like Donald Barthelme, Julio Cortazar, James Joyce, William … Read More
Spineless Wonders asks Tim Richards
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? So many: Gogol, Chekhov, Kafka, Borges, Salinger, Flannery O’Connor, IB Singer, Donald Barthelme, Carver, Peter Carey, Beverley Farmer, Gerald Murnane, Richard Ford, Alice Munro, Mary Gaitskill … I’m leaving out dozens. 2. What is the most memorable short story you … Read More
Spineless Wonders Asks Kim Westwood
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? I’m currently being impressed by Laura van den Berg. Some others for today (tomorrow I’ll think of more I wish I’d said) would be Janette Turner Hospital (‘The Prince of Darkness is a Gentleman’ was very powerful), Margo Lanagan’s anthology … Read More
Spineless Wonders presents … Interview with Caroline Reid
What is Spineless Wonders presents … and why are you so excited about it? It’s a night of short story readings, in a local pub, by professional actors. I’m calling it Spineless Wonders presents … a short evening of tall stories. The pub is a city pub (in Hindmarsh, Adelaide) with a country feel, there’s … Read More
Spineless Wonders Asks Michael Sala
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Some of my favourite short fiction writers are; Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami, Alice Munro, Ernest Hemingway, Tobias Wolff, Richard Ford, Ilse Aichinger, Gene Wolfe, David Vann, Patrick Cullen, Ryan O’Neill and A.S. Patric. 2. What is the most memorable short … Read More