The Best Australian Stories 2010

‘There is little to match the pleasurable, exhilarating rush when we know we are in the hands of a writer with authority.  Their power is like a kind of charisma – we allow ourselves to be willingly, absolutely persuaded.’ – Cate Kennedy


In The Best Australian Stories 2010, Cate Kennedy presents a seductive line-up of the year's most exciting short fiction, featuring the best work from publications around the country alongside pieces published here for the first time.  A literary feud unfolds, blow by comical blow, in the books pages of a Sydney newspaper. Ned Kelly's mother has her day in court. And as flood waters slowly rise in a small Australian town, a woman quietly watches and waits. By turns playful, heart-wrenching, intimate and exuberant, these twenty-nine stories reveal the strength and variety of Australian fiction today. The authors include first-timers as well as established masters, and the result is a stimulatingly diverse collection.


David Francis * Gillian Essex * Josephine Rowe * David Kelly * Paddy O’Reilly * Robert Drewe * Michael McGirr * Michael Sala * Fiona McFarlane * Karen Hitchcock * Ryan O’Neill * Nam Le * Tim Herbert * Dorothy Simmons * David Mence * Chris Womersley * Suvi Mahonen * Stephanie Buckle * John Kinsella * Mike Ladd * Anna Krien * Antonia Baldo * Joshua Lobb * Cory Taylor * Meg Mundell * Sherryl Clark * Louise D’Arcy * Joanne Riccioni * A.S. Patric