Perth Voice Interactive

COULD the short story be making a comeback?

In an age where everyone has the attention span of a gnat, maybe the novel is dead and the Twitter of the literary world – the short story – shall re-emerge from the Dickensian shadows.

The Netflix series Black Mirror – dark, standalone tales in the vein of The Twilight Zone – proved that short-form fiction is commercially viable in the 21st century.

Aussie author Laura Jean McKay knows a thing or two about writing terse classics – her debut collection of short stories Holiday in Cambodia won several national literary awards.

The book explored the effects of expatriate life and foreign influence on Cambodian people.

Then she burst onto the international literary scene in 2020 with her debut novel The Animals in That Country, a sci-fi tale about different species communicating after a pandemic.

Although released at the start of the covid pandemic, it was coincidence, and the inspiration for the book was McKay catching the the chikungunya virus at a writers festival in Bali in 2013.

In 2023 she released Sunflower, a collection of short stories, poems and vignettes written over 20 years.

It was met with critical acclaim and cemented her reputation as one of the most original and exciting speculative fiction writers around.

At this year’s Perth Festival Writers Weekend (February 23-25) McKay, also a creative writing lecturer, will hold a workshop on character and dialogue in short story.

The author is just one of the artists in this year’s diverse programme, which includes a performance and songwriting masterclass with Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier, a spotlight on Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Jane Smiley, and a workshop with poet and essayist Mok Zining.

There will also be a screening of the moving Netflix documentary The Last Daughter with First Nations author Brenda Matthews, and various panel debates with authors, poets and journalists such as 2023 Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, Christos Tsiolkas, A.J. Betts and Holden Sheppard.

Don’t worry, the kids haven’t been forgotten about with a special zone at the State Library with fun activities and readings from authors and comicmakers including Nathan Viney, Tracey Dembo and Sarah Searle.

There will also be a special pre-weekend program from February 20 at the City of Perth Library, Perth Town Hall and Centre For Stories.

Founded by UWA in 1953, Perth Festival is the longest running international arts festival in Australia.

For more than seven decades it has attracted some of the biggest names in art, literature and music to WA.

For tix and the full program see perthfestival.com.au. 

by STEPHEN POLLOCK