By Patricia Poppenbeek ‘I don’t want to go,’ I said to my stepfather. I glanced at Mum, but her eyes were on him, her whole body thin...

By Patricia Poppenbeek I’m interested in chocolate, goddesses (several of whom, like Aine and Queen Mab, became fairies), time travel...

By Geoffrey Dobbs Samson, my father's old dog, was left behind that morning. He lay at our feet beneath the kitchen table, thumping our...

By Terry Hastings The kid in the photograph is thin and timid-looking. She clutches nervously at her dress with one hand and shades her...

By Terry Hastings When music played on the radio, I sometimes tried to waltz my mother around our small suburban kitchen. The polished...

By Ranee Mischlewski When Vanessa decided to take in a boarder she didn’t know about accommodation sites so she advertised in the local...

By Ranee Mischlewski I found it about five years ago on the lawn in the back yard near the lemon tree. By lawn I mean patches of dirt,...

By Patricia Poppenbeek I have always been one or two people away from access to marijuana and hard drugs. I’ve always known Stewart*...

By Loretta Smith We built our first house on the drained wetlands of Aspendale, a southern beachside suburb of Melbourne. It was...

By Leonie Weaver It was a time of drought. Ruth longed for the smell of rain, for the build up of clouds on the horizon, the sudden...