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#5: What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved by Cate Kennedy
This is one hell of a story. For those who haven't read Cate Kennedy, she is an Australian poet, author, and short story writer. She has just written her first novel, The World Beneath, which Jo Case described as "a thought-provoking journey into contemporary Australia". Cate Kennedy is also the only person I know of that has won The Age Short Story Competition twice (!), and in reading What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved, it's not hard to see how she pulled it off...
#4: Your Man by Etgar Keret
"When Abigail told me she wanted us to break up, I was in shock. The cab had just pulled up at her place, and she got out on the sidewalk side, and said she didn't want me to come up, and that she didn't really want to talk about it either, and that most of all she never wanted to hear from me again, not even a Happy New Year or a birthday card. And then she slammed the cab door so hard that the driver cursed her through the window."...
#3: That Bali Smile by Paul Mitchell
Paul Mitchell is a Melbourne-based writer of prose and poetry who has appeared in Island, Overland and The Sleeper's Almanac 2007, among other journals. Martin Flanagan has prescribed Mitchell's writing for "people who think life hurts, rewards, bend, breaks and redeems."...
#2: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath
I have a guilty secret. Of all Sylvia Plath’s work, I have read only Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (and other Prose Writings) and Ariel . No Bell Jar, no Colossus , no Winter Trees...
#1: Scar Tissue by Patrick Cullen
I recently attended a salon celebrating some seriously talented writers, including Emily Maguire, Steven Amsterdam and Kalinda Ashton. The final writer was Patrick Cullen , who I had first read in 2007; it was this same writer that I feverishly sought immediately after the Salon, to soak up his words in a new light...