In this uniquely Australian anthology of short stories we traverse the country known by Australians as the 'wide brown land'. You will be introduced to a 'Bachelors & Spinsters' Ball, the wonderful memories of yesteryear's Cracker Nights, Aussie nicknames, the dangers of our wildlife, all written by gifted sassy women - women who have learned to live in a harsh, unforgiving land with irreverent humour, optimism and grace.

Where's your mother? Not well today. Said carefully and neutrally, as if pretending things were normal would make them so. Transform life into a manageable thing. As if ten year olds everywhere were the ladies of the house, the caretakers of the family. Brooks explores the internal dilemma of a child forced to become parent to a mentally unstable mother, as well as the guardian of her three younger siblings. With fearless candour, Linda peels back the layers of a child with adult responsibilities. What becomes of Kate when the years fall by and the reaches adulthood? Can the child within be...

Every third Wednesday we meet. Every third Wednesday we attempt to hone our craft. Stretching beyond rhyme, metre and description to tanka, cento, haiku, and abecedarium while we sip frothy cappuccinos, or perhaps indulge in cake, we go on a journey. When the blending of our words seems like rubbish, we laugh. When they fall flat, we groan and move on. Every now and then, someone will read a poem and we all sit still, poised in silent surrender to the soaring of our spirits and we are grateful for the places that poetry takes us. "Most pleasing of all is the profusion of poetic styles and...