Moody, broody and wild … precisely how I love short stories to be. And these are some of the best I read in 2023. ‘Anyone Can Do It’ by Manuel Muñoz Muñoz creates a mood in his latest collection of stories which I love and ‘Anyone Can Do It’ is especially evocative. The stories in
My best strategy for combatting overwork over the last six months has been reading poetry first thing before I migrate to my desk. Here are some of the poems that most inspired me. ‘September 8, 2017’ by Kerry Greer Like Judas to himself / He took a piece of paper, / Lit it at the
There’s hard-earned wisdom in these books to help people who are struggling. Do you mind? Minding Your Mind is based on James O’Loghlin and Professor Ian Hickie’s popular podcast and it broaches burn-out and depression, humour and community, trauma and addiction, anger and self-control, managing your body clock and more. Like a warm chat on a cold
Seven diverse short stories that plumb the depths of human experience. I love them all. ‘Why My Hair is Long’ ‘If my mother had called me and asked, “What have I done that you can’t forget?” I would have said, “I can forgive anything.” But she never called and that is what I can never forget.’
These poems offered warm lights and pools of delight in the second half of 2022. ‘At Springbrook’ by Sarah Holland-Batt I carry in heartwood for the stove. / When I swing open its glass door / a greying bee falls from the grate. / Tufted with ash, it moves ponderously / as though each of
Cold enough for you? Try these short stories to turn up the heat as winter draws in … ‘Butterflies of the Balkans’ Jo Lloyd, author of the collection The Earth Thy Great Exchequer Lies, thinks of the short story as a huge thing contained in a small space – like a poem or a TARDIS
It’s been a crazy six months for me – but poetry helped. The editors of the NOTHEME XI issue of the online poetry journal Cordite, Emily Stewart and Eloise Grills say it better. They write that, ‘in this post-not-really pandemic juncture’ they remembered, most of all, ‘How much we need the work of poetry and its sublime, strange
COVID-lockdown limited my walking but reading about walking (beyond my 5-kilometre-from-home boundary) kept me on track. River wander … The River gives you the sense you’re walking beside a beautiful river with someone who knows it as their friend. Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr is a Yolnu man from the Gonalbingu clan and his drawings of the
I read SO many good books this year … but here are some highlights to inspire your holiday reading. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams – Sparked by the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary, this wonderful tale explores missing words and the lives women lived between the lines. As Esme discovers: language shapes
A breathing place is what poetry offered me in the back half of 2021. Sydney was in lockdown for many months – again – and it was easy to be restless. Easy for anxiety to stagger your breath. Poetry gave me different cadences to hook into. Some of which I’ve sampled here. I make my
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