Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts

by Allen C. Jones

One part absurd humor, one part social commentary, Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts throws the most unlikely couples into bed together. This hilarious book includes a man mistaken for a bush, a mermaid refugee, a bird who dreams of weaponizing cats, a boy with a computer for a face, and a woman in love with a severed arm. These and more are the weird and lonely characters who drag their broken hearts through this collection, diligently searching for someone to stitch them up.

Allen C. Jones’ debut collection reads like a meeting between Peter Carey, Nikolai Gogol, and Lydia Millet where the task at hand is to write a love story. While the surface of these stories seems humorous and even absurd, beneath it runs a desperate nostalgia carried by a set of characters who will do anything to force their way back into love. Continue reading Big, Weird, Lonely Hearts →

Strangely Enough

edited by Gillian Hagenus

PB 240 | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858313 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | November 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Neglected by society, a group of caravanning 60-somethings encounter a place where time stops. A baby swims in a witch’s cauldron. A statue of Jesus grows fat off fish and chips. An ancient Egyptian God swims through the sewers under a suburban street and a desperate family harvests the fingers they find growing in their soil after their final food supplies wither.

Strangely Enough is a celebration of the far-reaching possibilities of short fiction from some of Australia’s most creatively ambitious minds. Surreal and haunting, funny and gripping, these intensely strange tales encompass what it means to grieve, love, wonder, fear and change, each ultimately offering something entirely unexpected and strangely, deeply Continue reading Strangely Enough →

Polluted Sex

by Lauren Foley

PB 240 | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858214 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK.

A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend.

Two ungendered characters contest the same female body.

A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied.

Lauren Foley’s debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.
Continue reading Polluted Sex →

The Weaver

by Melanie Kanicky

In a remote village, bordered by woods and an endless winter, Saatcha lives in the attic of her ailing father’s blacksmithery. As her father’s health fades and he is no longer able to work, Saatcha takes it upon herself to keep the forge running.

But when a pair of thieves appear in the dead of night, Saatcha’s duty to her father is torn from her. Forced to leave her home behind, the bounds of magic that once held Saatcha begin to slip away.
Continue reading The Weaver →

City Knife

by Rachel Hennessy

The chimera of the city are on the hunt.

After years of being individually slaughtered, they have come together to make war on Pandora and her people.

In the conclusion to The Burning Days, the sins of the past will be revealed and all hope for the future will be Continue reading City Knife →

Plane Tree Drive

by Lynette Washington

Peer through the windows and doors on Plane Tree Drive to find a streetscape that is humorous, heartbreaking, real and surreal. Here, the loneliness of domestic isolation and the joy of connection weave together to form an interlaced map of suburban life. Continue reading Plane Tree Drive →

An Ordinary Epidemic

How far will a desperate mother go to keep her loved ones safe?

by Amanda Hickie

Hannah is stuck in the middle of a deadly outbreak. As Sydney goes into lockdown, she attempts to quarantine her home and protect her family from the alarming infection around them. How far will a desperate mother go Continue reading An Ordinary Epidemic →

The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium

by Zanesh Catkin

The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium is an exegesis of the novel Pangamonium. It explores the ludic mode, which it considers an open play of signification characterised by freedom, reflexivity and subversion, and it explores the work of Nabokov, Calvino and Borges to Continue reading The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium →

Pangamonium

by Zanesh Catkin

Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself

Francis is a journalist looking for a big story in the tiny kingdom of Panga. He finds himself attempting to liberate a bunch of child slaves making sex toys for the West. Toss in an African pilgrim named Easter on a quest to find his grandfather’s grave filled with pirate gold, a military regime oppressing the citizens of Panga, and a Continue reading Pangamonium →

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