Short Stories

The Story Behind the Story: ‘By Proxy’

In March 2016, my husband and I went on a holiday together to Tasmania for five nights. It was the first time we’d left our young children for more than a night. My parents stepped up to mind them. The occasion was my 40th birthday and Tasmania was a ‘bucket-list’ destination. The scenery, the food, MONA – it seemed to…

Meet Jo Riccioni: Author & Winner of the Margaret River Press Short Story Competition

When people tell me they don’t read or like short stories, I tend to feel a bit sorry for them. And, if I’m honest, a little superior. Perhaps even a little defensive. That’s possibly the  wrong approach. As the wise and thoughtful editor, Laurie Steed, says in his introduction to Shibboleth and other stories (Margaret River Press) his response to short-story-prejudice…

Meet E.C. Thorpe

Meet E.C. Thorpe – Winner of the Stringybark Short Story Award 2015

Imagine you’re at the start of your creative writing life. You have a short story. You have no idea if it’s any good. But you send it off anyway to a national, well-respected short story competition – the first one you’ve ever entered. You wait and wait. Then the results come in and you nearly fall over. You won? You…

Meet Melanie Napthine, author of ‘Lost Boy’

Victorian writer, Melanie Napthine is the winner of this year’s Margaret River Press Short Story Competition for her unsettling tale, ‘Lost Boy’ – after which the anthology of shortlistees is also named. (Shameless plug – my story ‘Glory Season’ is also published in the collection!) It was a genuine thrill to read this story, which is disturbing in the best…

From Rejection to Publication: How a short story found its home

In this age of email and text message, it’s lovely to receive something in the post that isn’t a bill. It’s more lovely when that thing is a parcel. It’s even lovelier still when the parcel contains a beautiful book which has one of YOUR short stories published in it. I first started writing ‘Glory Season’ three years ago. The…

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