In 1747 the oldest daughter of a family named Valter had a child, a little girl, who died before her ninth birthday. Nobody remembers what she died of, or why she became a ghost, but there are various stories. Oma told my mother that she believed it was something to do with … Continue reading
The year of the fire tiger, which should mean that you rise upward: your energy is expansive. Halley’s comet reached its perihelion (its closest point to the sun), during its second visit to our solar system in the last 100 years. Bob Hawke was prime minister, and looked a lot … Continue reading
The boat slowed and eased towards the shore. The torch that the captain was holding illuminated the truck on the shore and the waiting men, each of them holding a rifle. The soldiers were surrounded by enormous moths, with white wings, their wings flashing reflected light. A magical cloud, attracted to the … Continue reading
I was born by the side of the road in a year nobody remembers. Meaning not that nobody remembers that year, but that nobody who was there when I was born recorded the fact of my birth, or recalls it, or is still alive. Except for my sister. I don’t … Continue reading
In Dying in the First Person, Samuel is a translator of his brother’s works, which are written in the language of Nahum. Nahum doesn’t exist in the real world: at least, not outside the boundary of my imagination. It is a language that the two brothers created when they were young. … Continue reading
There are an enormous number of general empirical propositions that count as certain for us. One such is that if someone’s arm is cut off it will not grow again (L Wittgenstein, On Certainty) There were nine of them to begin with. Children, that is. Ten, if you count poor Dora, dead … Continue reading
Here’s a list of upcoming (short) publications you’ll see from me. I had a short story (The Nature of Things) published in Volume 13, Issue 5 of the Review of Australian Fiction, alongside a wonderful piece by Jessica White (When The World Shivered). This short story is a piece of … Continue reading
There was a long road into the forest, and I drove down it in my old ute, with the children in the back, bouncing and laughing as we made our way down the rutted dirt road to our new house. The house was made of stones. We walked around the … Continue reading
Ren is a first year student at USQ, and she’s just nineteen. Which are only two of the reasons she’s amazing. There’s also this story she wrote! When asked to write a little bio, Ren came up with the following: Ren Patzwald is a nineteen year old from Queensland who … Continue reading
In the winter, the wind and his wife began to dwindle. They put a candle in the window, to light the path to their door. No one came near but the owls, who watched the old couple bend, and fetch, and fade. They were barely a whisper, barely a wisp. … Continue reading