I saw the callout from Wakefield Press looking for horror short stories by emerging writers on social media. There are always open submissions from indie and small publishers. I write a handful of short stories every year, mostly as technical writing exercises so I don’t often write to target particular submissions, but this time, I was hooked. 

Wakefield Press had received generous funding from the Australian Council for the Arts to publish Hometown Haunts — an anthology of short horror stories by emerging writers alongside established authors including Sarah Epstein, Lisa Fuller and Vikki Wakefield. They’re amazing Aussie authors, especially Vikki Wakefield. To appear in the table of contents in their company would be the highlight of my writing year.

Even though I primarily wrote fairy tales, I decided to dig into the darker side of the genre and channel my inner Grimm. I was surprised and honoured when my resultant short story Hunger was selected for the anthology. 

Working with Poppy Nwosu and Jo Case, the editors who pulled the anthology together, was a super experience. When the Aurealis Awards announced that three of the short stories from the anthology had been shortlisted in the YA short story category, I was super proud. The three short stories were: My Hunger, Lisa Fuller’s Don’t Look and Emma Osborne’s Slaughterhouse Boys. Editor Poppy Nwosu was also shortlisted for the 'Best Anthology'. Lisa went on to win both the Best Young Adult Short Story and the Best Horror Short Story for the Aurealis Awards. 

My short story Hunger can be read from the gallery

Hometown Haunts is available to order through most bookstores (and good libraries)!

Teaching Notes available from Wakefield Press.