Jane Rawson reads her incredible story Kangaroo which prompts us to think about our relationship with other animals and the future of the planet. We then chat about why she wrote this story, how her writing emerges, her role as editor of Island magazine and the challenges of getting short stories published.

Episode 6 of Australian Shorts features Kate Ryan. Kate is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, manuscript assessor, writing mentor and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies and her debut novel The Golden Book was published in 2021. Her latest novel HOUSE explores the intersection between families, architecture and emotion. 

In this episode Kate reads her story The Mighty have Fallen published in the Summer 2022 issue of Meanjin. Then we chat about the broad themes influencing her work, the tips she gives when mentoring writers and how reading helps when her writing stalls.

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

Episode 05 of Australian Shorts features Anne Casey-Hardy. Anne began writing after a long career as a librarian and advocate for families of premature babies. In 2018, she won the Peter Carey Short Story Award for her story, Being the Mother. Since then, her short stories and poetry have been published in Meanjin, Island, Overland, Westerly, Kill Your Darlings and several anthologies.

Anne’s short story collection Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls was published by Scribner/Simon & Schuster in September 2022 and was longlisted for the 2023 Indie Book Awards.

In this episode, Anne reads her story, Starving in the Land of Plenty.

Hear Anne discuss her views on the origins of status anxiety, laughing at your own funny lines and why she favours the first person POV.

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

Episode 4 of Australian Shorts features Laura Elvery. Laura is the author of two short story collections: Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter.

She is a past winner of the Josephine Ulrick Prize for Literature, the Margaret River Short Story Competition, the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize and the Fair Australia Prize for Fiction.

Ordinary Matter won the 2021 USQ Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection. The judges described it as ‘elegant, inventive, and often deeply touching’. The collection was also shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance and the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award.

Laura’s first novel, Nightingale, was shortlisted for the Fiction Book Award and won the People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award at the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards.

Laura has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies from QUT. 

In this episode, Laura reads Grand Canyon from her second collection. Hear how Laura combined fact with fiction for this story, why she chose to tell it through Frank’s voice, how she feels about beginnings and endings in stories, how reading your work aloud differs from reading it in your head, and more!

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

Episode 3 of Australian Shorts features Laurie Steed. Laurie’s short fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in Best Australian Stories, Award Winning Australian Writing, The Age, Meanjin, Overland, Westerly, Island and elsewhere. 

Laurie edited the short story anthology Shibboleth and Other Stories, published in 2016. His debut novel You Belong Here was published in 2018 and shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. His memoir, Love, Dad, was published in 2023. Laurie’s collection of short stories, Greater City Shadows, won the 2021 Henry Handel Richardson Fellowship for Short Story Writing and was published in 2024. 

In this episode, Laurie reads The Punch. Then we talk about how this story came into being and Laurie tells us why it’s easier to take risks with short stories and talks about the joys and pitfalls of writing across literary forms, and the long game of writing.

This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people in Meanjin, Brisbane, and on the lands of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people in Boorloo, Western Australia.

Episode 2 of Australian Shorts features Mirandi Riwoe. Mirandi’s short stories have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review and Best Summer Stories.

Her collection of short stories and novellas, titled The Burnished Sun won the 2022 UQP Quentin Bryce Award. On selecting The Burnished Sun, Dame Quentin Bryce says:

In addition to her short story collection, Mirandi has published a novella, The Fish Girl, and two novels, Stone Sky Gold Mountain and Sunbirds. Her third novel, A Short History of Longans will be available in 2026. Mirandi’s books are published by UQP. 

In this episode, you’ll hear Mirandi read Invitation from her collection and learn about the real-life events that fed into the creation of this story. We then chat about Mirandi’s writing process and discuss the importance of craft and practice when honing your writing skills. Mirandi also shares insights into selecting winners for short story competitions.

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

Welcome to Episode 1 of Australian Shorts. This podcast series begins with Amanda O’Callaghan.

Amanda has written and published many short stories and her fiction has been awarded and shortlisted in numerous contests in Australia, Ireland, and the UK.

Her story collection, This Taste for Silence (UQP), was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize (UK). It was described as “a stunning achievement” by Readings’ Ellen Cregan, with stories that maintain “a subtle, compelling sense of intrigue that makes each story highly readable without compromising the quality and detail of her writing.”

In this episode, Amanda reads Things from her collection. Then we chat about her writing process and how writing short stories differs from writing long form and flash fiction.

You will hear Amanda talk about the power that lies in a good short story, the courage it takes to write, “the tea bag process” of writing and why Amanda gets surprised by the stories she puts on the page.

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