This week's short story is 'GPS' by Cate Kennedy. It's a short story for lovers of twisted fairy tales and bushland suspense. Every girl should have a grandmother like this one in their lives.

Cate Kennedy has been writing and publishing short stories, along with poetry, novels and essays for over three decades. Recent short stories have been published in The Saturday Paper, and the anthologies The Scarlet Stilleto: 30 Years of Mystery, Murder and Malice, and Into Your Arms : Nick Cave’s Songs Reimagined. When not in Castlemaine, Victoria, Cate can be found teaching on the faculty of the MFA in Creative Writing at Pacific University in Portland, Oregon.

'GPS' was performed live at StorySALOON on May 6 by Jules Billington. A NIDA graduate, Jules works as an actor, director, and performance and movement coach. Their film credits include Buckley's Chance and iconic queer Australian feature films Ellie & Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) and All About E. On stage, they're known for their stunning performances at Belvoir, MTC and Bell Shakespeare. Jules is returning to the stage in June, in Corialanus, at Bell Shakespeare company's new theatre space, The Neilson Nutshell.

'GPS' by Cate Kennedy is from the anthology South of the Sun: Australian Fairy Tales for the 21st Century, published for the Australian Fairy Tale Society, by Serenity Press, 2021.

Coming up in our next episode: 'Baggage Claim' by Paddy O'Reilly, read by Monica Sayers.

This week's short story is 'Aitu' by Oliver Coulter, was performed live by Chris Alosio for StorySALOON on May 6, 2025 at The Vanguard, Newtown. A young man of Samoan heritage is driving along a Northern Territory highway carrying special cargo. It's a road story that's both spiritual and darkly funny, and is about the importance of knowing your culture. In Polynesian languages the word 'aitu' refers to ghosts or spirits.

Oliver Coulter is a Samoan-Australian writer raised in the Northern Territory. He has won a NT Literary Award and his work has also featured on ABC Radio National.

Chris Alosio is a rising star in screen and television, acclaimed for his roles in the Netflix series, Surviving Summer, and feature films Talk to Me, Next Goal Wins and Fighting Season.

'Aitu' was first published in the online Australian journal Going Down Swinging, Nov 2022.

Welcome to the first of our in-depth conversations, 'In the Saloon With...', where StorySALOON host Jane Messer meets with an author and actor from the live show for a deep-dive into the writing of the short story and the actor's performance of it.

In this episode we talk with Nic Low, author of 'Octopus' and Taofia Pelesasa, who read the story live for StorySALOON's April 2025 show.  

Based in Melbourne and New Zealand, Nic Low's Ngāi Tahu Māori and European heritage shape the short story 'Octopus', which is set in Rotorua on New Zealand's South Island. Low is the author of three acclaimed books, his short story collection Arms Race, which includes the story 'Octopus'; Uprising, and Little Doomsdays.  

'Octopus' is about a rowdy road gang and an octopus, a story in which myth and reality powerfully collide.

It is read by Taofia Pelesasa, a Western Sydney creative of Tokelauan and Samoan heritage. Pelesasa has worked as an actor, writer and filmmaker in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Samoa. His short film, Humans of the Islands, (CoconetTV.com) explores the impacts of rising sea levels on Pasifika island futures, a topic which he discusses in this episode.

Jane Messer is the host of StorySALOON Live and StorySALOON Podcast.

This week's short story is 'Protocols of Transference' by Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker, a Nyungar technologist, writer, and digital rights activist living on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar, Western Australia.

Build a mechanical brain to hold and remember First Nations stories. 'Protocols of Transference's' narrator is a First Nation person who is gathering and saving Indigenous stories. They do this by building a digital and mechanical brain to hold the many stories that have been taken from Australia’s first peoples, and which they collectively mourn the loss of – and in this story - work to recover and revive.

The story is read by Dakotah Love, an upcoming talent and recent graduate of NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Dakotah is a proud First Nations artist of the Anēwan mob, Armidale, New South Wales. 

'Protocols of Transference', Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker, in This All Come Back Now: an anthology of First Nations speculative fiction, edited by Mikaela Saunders, UQP, 2022.

StorySALOON acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first storytellers of this land. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, as we create and perform on unceded Gadigal land. 

This week's short story is 'Octopus' by Nic Low, a writer of Ngāi Tahu Māori and European heritage. Based in Melbourne and New Zealand, Nic is the author of three acclaimed books, Arms Race, Uprising, and Little Doomsdays. 'Octopus' is set on New Zealand's South Island. It is about a rowdy road gang and an octopus, a story in which myth and reality energetically collide.

It is read by Taofia Pelesasa, Western Sydney creative practitioner of Tokelauan and Samoan heritage. Pelesasa has worked as an actor, writer and filmmaker in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Samoa. 

If you enjoy this episode, tune in to StorySALOON's 'In the Saloon with Nic Low and Taofia Pelesasa' for an in-depth conversation between these two fascinating creatives, hosted by Jane Messer. Releasing on April 29, 2025.

'Octopus' was first published in Griffith Review and then in Nic Low's short story collection Arms Race, Text Publishing, 2014.

This week's short story is "Tinder Date", written by Sydney fiction and travel writer Monique Choy. It's an inner city - rural love story. Set in a Marrickville bar. City Celia meets farmer Alistair. It’s hilarious and excruciating. How will the date go? 

Performed live by Zoe Carides at The Vanguard, Newtown. Zoe Carides' TV and film career includes Death in Brunswick, the Netflix TV drama Pieces of Her and thriller Interceptor, Top of The Lake, Rake, Pieces of Her, Brilliant Lies, and Mystery Road.

‘Tinder Date’ by Monique Choy was first published in Soak: UTS Writers' Anthology, Brio Books, 2023.

StorySALOON Podcast is your listen-anytime creative fix— contemporary short stories published in our best journals and anthologies, written by award-winning and emerging writers, then narrated on stage by Australia’s most talented actors at The Vanguard, Newtown.

Your host and Chief Saloonist is Jane Messer.