A Kiss Before Dying

Love blooms on the battlefield in Ashleigh Mounser's winning entry in the Herald's Young Writer of the Year for 2012.

Colonel Christopher Redford will always remember the precise moment he realises he is in love with Sergeant Ryan Anderson. It is during the Battle of Verdun, and the moment is so buried within the chaos of that battle that Christopher does not stop to consider it. It is a moment which encapsulates all that is wonderful about Ryan. It is a moment in which Christopher remembers the rust in his voice during the early mornings and notices the tremor of the hands which clutch the gun.....

Of blood and mud: the three battles of Ypres

VERDUN

Wisdom Teeth

Best Australian Yarn

I love a boy who leaves me.

I like to start the story this way. I can point at this town on a map, at this date on a calendar and say this is when it began. This is when I started grinding my teeth in my sleep, when I realised my hair had been dead for years and cut it all off, when I lay down with a cheque book beneath my pillow like a bible.

The Poems

Winner of the Outlook Springs Nonfiction Prize

Later that night, she will stand in the kitchen watching his bread go green while everyone else sleeps. She will imagine she can hear the scrape of pain killers down his throat. She will swear she can hear him breathing plastic. She’s going to write poems about this, poems that taste like ink and salt.

BRIDEZILLA

Furious Fiction July 2020 Winner

Despite marrying a vampire, Jessica was determined to have a midday ceremony.

“Vot if I catch fire?” Vlad asked nervously.

Vlad was an anxious man. It had something to do with his upbringing. Jessica had asked once, and promptly forgotten to listen to the answer.

When Vincent Flew

SMH Young Writer of the Year

Vincent began to grow wings on a Monday. At first it was difficult to tell what was happening. All he knew for certain was that his shoulders itched and his skin had become pink and puckered. He told Jamie, his best friend at school, that day; “A rash,” he said, “has grown on my back.” Jamie was four months older than Vincent and terribly wise. He told Vincent to be patient; “In time,” he said, “this too shall pass.”

The Man in the Moon

Questions Writing Prize 2014

Last night I dreamt the man in the moon planted a dandelion inside my lungs. He covered the seed over with soil, and in the morning I breathed petals onto the pillow.