The Best Australian Stories 2016

by Charlotte Wood

  Publication Details

  James Bradley’s ‘Martian Triptych’ appeared in Dreaming in the Dark, edited by Jack Dann (Subterranean Press, 2016).

  David Brooks’ ‘Grief’ appeared in his collection Napoleon’s Roads (UQP, 2016).

  Brian Castro’s ‘Love, Actually’ appeared in Review of Australian Fiction (vol. 18, no. 5, June 2016).

  Gregory Day’s ‘Moth Sea Fog’ appeared in The Big Issue (August 2016).

  Tegan Bennett Daylight’s ‘Animals of the Savannah’ appeared in The Big Issue (August 2016).

  Jennifer Down’s ‘Alpine Road’ appeared in Overland (no. 221, Summer 2015).

  Elizabeth Harrower’s ‘A Few Days in the Country’ appeared in her collection A Few Days in the Country & Other Stories (Text Publishing, 2016).

  Julie Koh’s ‘The Fat Girl in History’ appeared in The Sleepers Almanac X (Sleepers Publishing, 2015), and in her collection Portable Curiosities (UQP, 2016).

  Jack Latimore’s ‘Where Waters Meet’ appeared in Overland (no. 222, Autumn 2016).

  Nasrin Mahoutchi’s ‘Standing in the Cold’ appeared in Southerly (vol. 75, no. 2, 2015).

  Fiona McFarlane’s ‘Good News for Modern Man’ appeared in her collection The High Places (Penguin Random House, 2016). Copyright © Fiona McFarlane 2015. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd.

  Michael McGirr’s ‘A Review of Over There by Stanislaus Nguyen’ appeared in Meanjin (Winter 2016).

  Elizabeth Tan’s ‘Coca-Cola Birds Sing Sweetest in the Morning’ appeared in Overland (no. 222, Autumn 2016).

  Abigail Ulman’s ‘Frida Boyelski’s Shiva’ appeared in Frankie Magazine (August 2015).

  Ellen van Neerven’s ‘Blueglass’ appeared in The Canary Press (Issue 8, 2015).

  Michelle Wright’s ‘Blur’ appeared in her collection Fine (Allen & Unwin, 2016).

  Notes on Contributors

  THE EDITOR

  The Australian newspaper has described Charlotte Wood as ‘one of our most original and provocative writers’. She is the author of five novels and two books of non-fiction. Her latest novel, The Natural Way of Things, won the 2016 Stella Prize and the 2016 Indie Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Award and the Miles Franklin, among others. It is also being released in the UK, North America and throughout Europe. Her latest book is The Writer’s Room, a selection of long-form interviews with established Australian authors.

  THE AUTHORS

  Georgia Blain has published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. She has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the NSW and SA Premiers’ Literary Awards, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia’s most recent works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, in addition to Between a Wolf and a Dog, Georgia also published the YA novel Special (Penguin Random House Australia). She lives in Sydney, where she works full-time as a writer.

  James Bradley is a novelist and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist and most recently Clade, which was nominated for the NSW Premier’s Award for Fiction, the Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction, the WA Premier’s Book Award for Fiction, the ALS Gold Medal and the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

  David Brooks, co-editor of Southerly and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, is the 2015/16 Australia Council Fellow in fiction. His recent publications include Napoleon’s Roads (stories; UQP, 2016), Open House (poetry; UQP, 2015) and Derrida’s Breakfast (essays on poetry, philosophy and the animal; Brandl & Schlesinger, 2016).

  Brian Castro is the author of ten novels, including the multi-award-winning Double-Wolf and Shanghai Dancing. He has also published a volume of essays. His latest novel, Blindness & Rage, will be published by Giramondo in 2017. He is chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide.

  Gregory Day is a writer, musician, poet and literary critic. His work has won the prestigious Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. His most recent novel is Archipelago of Souls (Picador, 2015). He lives on the southwest coast of Victoria, Australia.

  Tegan Bennett Daylight is a fiction writer, teacher and critic. She is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories, Six Bedrooms, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Stella Award, the ALS Gold Medal and the Steele Rudd Award. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.

  Jennifer Down is a writer, editor and translator. Her debut novel, Our Magic Hour, is available through Text Publishing. Convalescence, a short story collection, will be published in 2017.

  Elizabeth Harrower is the author of the novels Down in the City, The Long Prospect, The Catherine Wheel and The Watch Tower – all of which have been republished as Text Classics – and In Certain Circles, which was published in 2014 and shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2015. Elizabeth lives in Sydney.

  Julie Koh () has written two short story collections: Capital Misfits and Portable Curiosities. Stories from both have appeared in The Best Australian Stories (2014 and 2015) and Best Australian Comedy Writing 2016. Portable Curiosities has been shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the QLA Steele Rudd Award. Julie is the editor of BooksActually’s Gold Standard 2016. ‘The Fat Girl in History’ is dedicated to Gary Lo.

  Jack Latimore is an Indigenous writer residing in Melbourne. His fiction has previously appeared in Overland and the anthology GeekMook.

  Nasrin Mahoutchi writes in Farsi (Persian) and English. Her short stories have been published in anthologies such as HEAT, Southerly and Meanjin. Some of her works have been broadcast on ABC Radio, Radio Eye and Persian Radio. She has received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. She has finished her DCA at the University of Western Sydney.

  Fiona McFarlane is the author of The Night Guest, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Guardian First Book Award, and The High Places, a collection of stories. Her stories have been published in the New Yorker, Southerly and Zoetrope: All-Story. She lives in Sydney.

  Michael McGirr is the author of Things You Get for Free and The Lost Art of Sleep. His book Bypass: The Story of a Road has been a popular Year 12 English text in Victoria. He has reviewed over 900 books for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is currently dean of faith at St Kevin’s College in Melbourne.

  Paddy O’Reilly is the author of three novels and two collections of short stories. Her novels and stories have won and been shortlisted for a number of major awards, and been published, anthologised and broadcast in Australia, the UK and the USA.

  Kate Ryan writes fiction and non-fiction. Her work has appeared in publications including New Australian Writing 2, The Sleepers Almanac, Kill Your Darlings, Griffith Review and TEXT. Her children’s picture books have been published by Penguin and Lothian. Kate’s story ‘Sunday Nights’ was shortlisted for the 2015 Josephine Ulrick Award. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from La Trobe University (2013), and in 2015 her essay ‘Psychotherapy for Normal People’ won the Writers’ Prize in the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She is working on an adult novel.

  Trevor Shearston has published a story collection and seven novels. The last, Game, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin, and shortlisted for the Christina Stead and Colin Roderick awards. He lives in Katoomba.

  Elizabeth Tan is a Perth writer who recently completed her Creative Writing PhD at Curtin University. ‘Coca-Cola Birds Sing Sweetest in the Morning’ is an excerpt from Elizabeth’s debut novel, Rubik, which will be published by Brio in 2017.

  Abigail Ulman is a writer from Melbourne. She is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University and was named a 2016 Best Young Novelist by the Sydney Morning Herald. Her debut
story collection, Hot Little Hands, was recently published in Australia and abroad.

  Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali and Dutch heritage. Her first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014), was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award, and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing. Comfort Food (UPQ, 2016) is her latest release.

  Michelle Wright’s short stories have won awards including the Age, Alan Marshall and Grace Marion Wilson. Her short story collection, Fine, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2015 and published by Allen & Unwin in 2016. Her first novel will be published in 2017.