Episode 10 of Australian Shorts features Melanie Cheng. Melanie is a writer and general practitioner based in Naarm, Melbourne. Her debut short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2018 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction and her novel, Room for a Stranger, was longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award. Her latest novel, The Burrow, has been translated and published internationally in North America, Hungary, Spain and Turkey. It was shortlisted for several Australian awards including the 2025 Stella Prize. Her short stories have appeared in Meanjin, The Griffith Review, The Big Issue and World Literature Today among many others.

In this episode Melanie reads Stone Baby, published in World Literature Today in 2025 (https://worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/january/stone-baby-melanie-cheng). Melanie discusses the genesis of this story and how it took two decades to write. She talks about how her work as a doctor influences her writing and vice versa and gives us some tips on what makes a short story stand out in competitions.

This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Meanjin, Brisbane, and on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm, Melbourne. 

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Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands