We’re pleased to announce the winner of the November WWWC: James Byron Books! James’ response to the prompt ‘car on a hill’ features a malevolent Volkswagen Beetle that seems to thirst for blood.

Read James’ winning entry below.

To celebrate the release of Stephen Orr’s The Boy in Time, we’re pleased to be publishing a sneak peek into the pages of the collection. The extract comes from Stephen’s introduction to the collection, where he writes about his first forays into short fiction, and highlights some of his inspirations for his work.

A plane in the distance, artillery, his father waiting, and the boy wonders what to do. In Stephen Orr’s new short story collection, a child born into a world he can’t comprehend waits for answers, overcome with possibilities. The collection’s impressionistic take on the short story captures a child’s bewilderment of what it’s like to be alive.

Read the introduction below.

Fifty years ago, Dr Ian Duncan’s murder led to major law reform, as South Australia became the first state to decriminalise homosexuality. In this special guest post, Robert Hicks discusses the political impacts of Dr Duncan’s death.

Read his fascinating piece below.

Feast Festival is hosting a commemoration event for Dr Duncan on Thursday 24 November at 11 am at Centennial Park. Find more information on the event here.

Siblings tells what it is like to grow up with a brother or sister with a disability or illness. A brave account of Kate Strohm’s own journey as a sibling, the book provides other siblings with strategies to make sense of their experiences.

This year marks twenty years since the publication of Siblings. In a special guest post, Kate reflects on the journey that she’s been on in the years since the book was released.

Read more below.

In October, on a dark and gloomy evening, Wakefield Press welcomed many brave punters into our bookshop for the launch of Heather Taylor-Johnson’s latest poetry collection, Alternative Hollywood Ending.

We are thrilled now to be sharing launcher Amelia Walker’s insightful and thought-provoking speech.

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the October WWWC: Lana Guineay! Lana’s response to the prompt ‘beamish boy’ draws inspiration from literature and language.

On her inspiration for her entry, Lana writes: ‘When I read this month’s competition prompt, the word “beamish” was new to me. While I could infer its meaning I wasn’t familiar with the term, and what was its association with “boy”? One Google later I found that the phrase is from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, who seemingly thought he invented it – but in fact its first recorded English usage came from a 1530 text: John Palsgrave’s L’éclaircissement De La Langue Française. This etymology interested me much more, and its use “Beamysshe as the sonne is, radieux” called to mind one of my favourite sonnets, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 33 and its heartbreaking play on sun/son – but in this case the heart was restored and radiant. My imagination was intrigued and the words flew out!’

Read her winning entry, ‘Beamysshe’, below.

We’re thrilled and honoured to announce that Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, edited by Poppy Nwosu, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Small Press Network Book of the Year Award (formerly the Most Underrated Book Award).

The anthology – the first #LoveOzYA collection to focus entirely on horror – unites a stellar cast of Australia’s finest YA authors with talented new and emerging voices, including two graphic artists.

Earlier this year, we were proud to announce that contributing author Lisa Fuller had won both the Best Young Adult Short Story and the Best Horror Short Story in the 2021 Aurealis Awards, an award that acknowledges excellence in speculative, horror and sci-fi fiction.

To celebrate the shortlisting, and Lisa’s wins, we’re pleased to share her excellent story ‘Don’t Look’ here on the blog.