Short stories, features and poems from our writing community.
He understands the bones of little fish.
The way each spine will set in stone
beneath the weight of forests, sediment,
the collapsed strata of years. How
many times has he lifted those skulls
with a minute brush, blown dust
from the space their fins once radiated?
Emerging Victorian writers from migrant backgrounds are invited to apply for the new Deborah Cass Prize.
The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, Deborah Cass became a prize-winning professor of International Law at the London School of Economics. On learning that she had cancer, Deborah left her academic career to focus on creative writing. She had a number of short fiction pieces published, but was unable to realise her aim to complete a novel.
With generous support from family and friends, this prize aims to help someone from a migrant background find a voice for themselves...
Lesson 1: Sun Hun- Body Itchy
I am restless and impatient
like the child who is sun hun
desiring to be naughty
Meaning: body itchy
For happenings to happen
I want you to graze on my skin
ever so slightly
moistening every inch
exasperating my body itch
These are the things I know to be true about my grandmother:
1. She is beautiful.
2. She has tattoos for eyebrows.
3. She was almost raped by a Japanese soldier during the war.
4. She lost two children.
shanghai is hungry for babies
the city grey under grey
white hairs, concrete, glass and fog...
Bella Li wrote her first poem in primary school, but wasn’t formally introduced to poetry – in the form of poets such as Tennyson, Poe, Pound and Eliot – until high school. She didn’t start writing poetry again until her first year at university. “The poems I wrote were particularly hideous, although at the time I thought they were okay,” says Bella. “This makes me nervous about what I am writing now.”
“There is power in minorities telling their own stories,” says Write-ability Salon host Jax-Jacki Brown.
Brown is a feminist, disability and queer rights activist and spoken-word performer with a BA in Communication and Cultural Studies (honours) which focused on the intersections between queer and disability identities.
Sarah Widdup was one five writers with disability who received a Write-ability Fellowship in 2014.
The Fellowships, a joint initiative of Writers Victoria and Arts Access Victoria, enabled Sarah to work with mentor Matthew Hooper.
Enjoy an extract from Sarah’s novella, ‘Skeletons of Character’...
In 2014, Writers Victoria produced a series of postcards and memes of some of our Write-ability Fellows. This week, we profile the work of Sarah Widdup.
In 2014, Writers Victoria produced a series of postcards and memes of some of our Write-ability Fellows. This week, we profile the work of Robert O'Brien.
