Breaking Beauty

Breaking Beauty puts one of the greatest obsessions of our time under the spotlight and shows that beauty rarely exists without its grubby underbelly. There is no light without darkness.


Our writers — sparkling talents both established and emerging — discover that beauty can be found in the most unusual and unexpected places… in suburban driveways, graveyards, finials, cupcakes, train stations, grape-vines and of course in the complexities of human relationships. They also find beauty in more conventional places like love, sex and the innocence of childhood.


The writers in Breaking Beauty attended the Creative Writing postgraduate program at the University of Adelaide, one of the pre-eminent creative writing programs in Australia. Many have received national awards and been published widely in Australia and internationally. This collection showcases some of our finest established and emerging writers.