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
interviews
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
Spineless Wonders Asks Demet Divaroren
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? There are so many! Paddy O’Reilly, Cate Kennedy, Margo Lanagan, Dan Chaon just to name a few. 2. What is the most memorable short story you have read? And why does it stand out for you? Margo Lanagan’s “Singing My … Read More
Angus Benson with guest interviewer Vanessa McKinley
The Column welcomes guest blogger, Vanessa McKinley who has interviewed surfer turned writer, Angus Benson whose story, ‘Down South’ appears in this year’s UTS Anthology. The UTS Writers’ Anthology showcases the considerable talent emerging every year from one of Australia’s most respected writing programs. The Life You Chose and That Chose You is the twenty-fifth … Read More
Spineless Wonders Asks Emilie Collyer
1. Who are the short fiction authors you admire (Australian or otherwise, alive or dead)? Wow. I admire so many. Three stand out as changing what I knew was possible to do with the form: Haruki Murakami, Margo Lanagan and Ali Smith. Oh and Tom Cho. So that’s four. The way they use language and … Read More