stories

Excerpts from some of the stories listed below are available in the “read me” section of this website.

2024. Short story, Everything is Beautiful, in Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist, Fremantle Press, Fremantle.
2024. Libretto for the opera Tsuyazaki, written with Naoko Benom-Miura and composed by Paul Smith. Premiered in October at Namiori Shrine, Tsuyazaki, Fukuoka.
2024. Short story, Mountains, for Nozoki Ana ART Tsuyazaki (or Peephole Art in Tsuyazaki, Fukutsu, Fukuoka.
2023. Short story, Top Five Tips for Lifting Pumpkins, for the Finders Keepers blog series, State Library of Queensland.
2023. Short story, Directions, for the townscape art project Nozoki Ana ART Tsuyazaki (or Peephole Art in Tsuyazaki, Fukutsu, Fukuoka, 1 October–26 November.
2023. Short story, On the Road, in New Australian Fiction 2023, Kill Your Darlings, Melbourne.
2023. Short story, Radical Love, in Griffith Review 79, Griffith University, South Brisbane.
2023. Letter in Dear Lover, edited by Samuel Johnson and illustrated by Shaun Tan, Hachette Australia, Sydney.
2021. Short story, A Jolly Good Scrape!, with illustrations by Jeffrey Phillips, Liminal Vol. II, Melbourne.
2021. Art song, ’19/6′, written with composer Zara Stanton. Premiered at Vicki Lee Gallery as part of Blush Opera’s Twelve Threads event. Performance by Jermaine Chau and Eleanor Betts.
2021. Opera, Chop Chef, debuted at Riverside Theatres, 22–24 April.
2021. Letter in Dear Mum, edited by Samuel Johnson and illustrated by Shaun Tan, Hachette Australia, Sydney.
2021. Short story, Confessions of the Great Martyr of All Time, edited by Leah Jing McIntosh for Liminal magazine’s Time series, co-presented with Multicultural Arts Victoria’s Mapping Melbourne Festival.
2020. Essay, Double Phoenix, One-Way Street Magazine (Dandu), Beijing.
2020. Short story, Julie Koh, Silent Dialogue, correspondences, Melbourne.
2020. Short story, The Secret Garden, Meanjin, Volume 79 Issue 4, 80th anniversary edition.
2020. Short story, Eden, Peril magazine, Edition 43. Part of the Noteworthy Project curated by Kevin Bathman of Carnival of the Bold.
2020. Radio play, Slammin’ with the Poet King, Radio National Fictions: Untrue Crime series. Produced by Mark Dapin and Sophie Townsend.
2020. Opera, Chop Chef, written with composer Paul Smith for Blush Opera, set to debut at Riverside, 4–6 June. Postponed until 2021.
2020. Radio play, Workers of All Lands Unite, Radio National Fictions: Oz Gothic series, ABC Radio National. Produced by Camilla Hannan and Sophie Townsend.
2019. Short story, The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man, republished in Everything Changes: a Transcultural Anthology, edited by Xianlin Song and Nicholas Jose, UWA Publishing, Perth.
2019. Short story, HELENA J. GINSBURG (1980–2007), republished in Creating Micro stories: Small fiction with big impact!, edited by Erika Boas and Emma Jenkins, Australian Association for the Teaching of English, Kensington Gardens.
2019. Short story, Slammin’ with the Poet King, in Going Down Swinging #40, Melbourne.

2019. Short story, Workers of All Lands Unite, in New Australian Fiction, edited by Rebecca Starford, Kill Your Darlings, Melbourne.

2019. Letter in Dear Dad, edited by Samuel Johnson and illustrated by Shaun Tan, Hachette Australia, Sydney.

2019. Essay, Reinvention in Six Parts: Meditations on Julie Koh’s Asia/Australia, in Perfection, edited by Leah Jing for Liminal magazine and ANU Asia & the Pacific.

2018. Email to Santa in Dear Santa, edited by Samuel Johnson and illustrated by Shaun Tan, Hachette Australia, Sydney.

2018. Short story, The Patternmaker, in Sydney Noir, edited by John Dale, Akashic Books, Boston and Brio Books, Sydney. Exclusive excerpt over at Literary Hub’s CrimeReads.

2018. Nature essay, C is for Cockroach, for the Sydney Review of Books.

2018. Short story, The Lion, in Reading the Landscape: A Celebration of Australian Writing (UQP’s 70th Anniversary Anthology), UQP.

2018. Portable Curiosities a finalist in the 2018 Norma K Hemming Award (Long Work), recognising excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class or disability in a published speculative fiction work.

2018. Portable Curiosities audiobook released by Bolinda and read by Lauren Hamilton Neill.

2018. Transcript, The 2017 Paradox Prize Address, published in Meanjin Volume 77 No. 1 (Autumn edition).

2017. Short story, The Wall, from Issue 10 of The Canary Press republished in The Best Australian Stories 2017.

2017. Short story, Apocalypse for Harp and Voice, published in Review of Australian Fiction, Volume 23 Issue 6, alongside Eric Yoshiaki Dando’s All the Little Deaths when we Killed our Darlings. Part of a special volume curated by Kanganoulipo.

2017. Short story, Cross-Section, published in Vault magazine, Issue 19.

2017. Short story, The Wall, from Issue 10 of The Canary Press republished online in fine print magazine Issue #11: Humour & Parody, with illustration by Jeffrey D. Phillips.

2017. Named a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist.

2017. Portable Curiosities shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Award in the 2017 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

2017. Shortlisted for the M Literary Residency 2017.

2017. Blog post for Meanjin’s What I’m Reading series.

2016. Short story, Cream Reaper, from Portable Curiosities included in 2016’s Best Australian Comedy Writing (Affirm Press).

2016. Short story anthology, BooksActually’s Gold Standard 2016, published by Math Paper Press.

2016. Singapore print edition of capsule short story collection, Capital Misfits, published by Math Paper Press with illustrations by Matt Huynh.

2016. Short story, The Fat Girl in History, from The Sleepers Almanac X and Portable Curiosities included in The Best Australian Stories 2016.

2016. Portable Curiosities shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2016 and the Queensland Literary Awards – Australian Short Story Collection – Steele Rudd Award 2016.

2016. Shortlisted for the 2016–2017 Copyright Agency – UTS New Writer’s Fellowship.

2016. Full-length short story collection, Portable Curiosities, published by UQP.

2016. Short story, The Wall, published in The Canary Press Issue 10, Melbourne. Illustrated by Jeffrey D. Phillips.

2016. Short story, The Procession, published in HEAT, Fixi Novo, Malaysia.

2016. Short story, The Level Playing Field, published in The Australian.

2015. Short story, The Level Playing Field, from Capital Misfits, published in The Best Australian Stories 2015.

2015. Short story, The Fat Girl in History, published in The Sleepers Almanac X, Sleepers Publishing, Melbourne.

2015. Capsule short story collection, Capital Misfits, published by Spineless Wonders in ebook format.

2015. Short story, The Sister Company, published in Seizure Online Edition 1. Illustration by Matt Huynh.

2014. Short story, Civility Place, published in Best Australian Stories 2014.

2014. Short story, Sight, published in Kyoto Journal Issue #80. Illustrations by Matt Huynh.

2014. Short story, Civility Place, published in The Sleepers Almanac No. 9, Sleepers Publishing, Melbourne. Reviewed in The Age/Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian. Check out my interview with Lawyers Weekly about the story.

2014. Short story, The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man (with illustrations by Matt Huynh), published on 16 February in The Lifted Brow’s 3D Yellow Man Edition (Digital Edition, Volume 5, Issue 1). The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man was set reading in Semester 1, 2014 for Dr Jane Park’s unit of study ‘Race and Representation’ at the University of Sydney (Department of Gender and Cultural Studies). On 19 March, I gave a guest lecture to students of the course with a focus on this short story. The story will also be taught at the University of Melbourne.

2014. Story writer and editor for Monstereum: Compendium of Modern Monsters, a forthcoming illustrated online magazine. Curated by Matt Huynh.

2013. Wrote about National Novel Writing Month for this Writers Bloc blog post.

2013. Short story, The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man, shortlisted for the Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers.

2013. Short story, Sight, longlisted for the 2013 Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize.

2013. Commended by judges for the Australian Society of Authors Ray Koppe Young Writers’ Residency.

2013. Finalist in the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards Written Word category.

2013. Article, Maverick, on how I quit my job in corporate law and became a lollipop lady. Published as part of Geoff Orton’s Writers Bloc series, Writers’ Other Jobs.

2013. Story Concept and Story Consultant for the short film, Only One. Loosely based on an unpublished short story of mine. The film was supported by the Metro Screen First Break program and premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest 2013. View the trailer here.

2013. Long short story, Two, published in March in The Sleepers Almanac No. 8, Sleepers Publishing, Melbourne. Described by the Australian Book Review (April 2013) as “an absurdist sprint through the regimented life of a man who decides that, if life is fleeting, he will beat it”.

2012. Short review of Peter Corris’ The Dying Trade (Text Publishing) in The Lifted Brow No. 14.

2012. Colin the Dog’s Fabulous Midnight Adventure and Another Story screened in August at the inaugural Good Dog! International Film Festival in Sydney.

2012. Premiere of Colin the Dog’s Fabulous Midnight Adventure and Another Story at the St Kilda Film Festival on 26 May as part of Australia’s Top 100 Short Films.

2012. Highly Commended in the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards Written Word category.

2012. Review of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 for Random House Australia’s Murakami Month.

2011. Small press networks in the digital age, an interview with Louise Swinn and Zoe Dattner of Sleepers Publishing, published by The Social Interface.

2011. Short story, Teapot Piñata, published in The Sleepers Almanac No. 7, Sleepers Publishing, Melbourne. Described as a “celebration of the absurd” in this June 2012 review of the Almanac in The Australian. (Google the title, ‘Anthological adventures across the home front’, to view the full article.)

2011. Article, Planet ebook: from virtual graveyard to literary lift-off, published by The Social Interface.

2011. Short story, The Fantastic Breasts, published in ebook format. See the SHOP section of this blog for links to online distributors.

2011. Flash fiction piece, Friendsville, published on 19 May by online journal, Subtle Fiction.

2011. Film adaptation of my short story Colin the Dog’s Fabulous Midnight Adventure and Another Story, starring Bob Baines, Diane Smith, Sophie Ross, Ian Meadows and Peter McCallum. Producers: Staple Fiction (Jiao Chen and Bethany Bruce). Screenwriter/Director: Grant Scicluna. DOP: Franc Biffone. Editor: Anthony Cox. Composers/sound design: Groove Quantize.

2007. Runner-Up in the Fish One-Page Prize for HELENA J. GINSBURG (1980-2007), published in The Fish Anthology 2007: A Paper Heart Is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail, Fish Publishing, Cork, Ireland, 2007.

2002. Short story Colin the Dog’s Fabulous Midnight Adventure & Another Story published in the Young Writers Showcase 2001, NSW Board of Studies, Sydney, 2002.