A man honeymoons before leaving to fight in the First World War, a literature class for prisoners, unexpected meetings with long-lost loves … short stories and poems by Garry Kinnane that take in early and mid 20th century Australia, and on into the trials of ageing in the 21st. Ten stories, twenty poems – thirty pieces in all.

Garry Kinnane is the author of George Johnston: A Biography (winner of The Age Book-of-the-Year 1986) Colin Colahan: A Portrait, and the memoir trilogy, Shadowed Days.

Published by Rainshadow, an imprint of Clouds of Magellan Press.

Find online at Booktopia.

Also by Garry Kinnane from Clouds of Magellan Press:

Here is a poem from craft by Pete Haydon, published by Rainshadow (an imprint of Clouds of Magellan). craft is a book of poems about the making of boats, the losing of boats … poems that circle around small craft and the sea, with occasional forays into the darker deeps.

Feeling the curve

Nothing is straight, nor will be straight;
Design abhors a straightened line.
Draw it straight and life will curve it
Till it’s true, a true line.
A true line is sweet;
A sweet line is curved.
Feel its flank, 
a living thing,
That slips its subtle way
Through water’s almost nonsense,
Intuiting some meaning,
Held a flashing second,
Lost, recombined a million times
In the time it takes to tell.

Pete Haydon is a writer and musician. He is the author of the play The Crime of the Modern Mariner and lives in Aireys Inlet, Victoria.

Buy craft from Blarney Books, Booktopia

A great way to spend the Winter Solstice – 21 June at the Pride Centre with Q-Lit. Selling and giving away, creative conversations with emerging writers and passionate readers.

Sprucing up the website a little. Visit the revised page for Michael Bernard Kelly

Also, a page for Bent Street – we’re making pdfs available of issue 1-2017 and 2-2018.

Poetry and images by Guy James Whitworth. Never Held A Gun (Rainshadow, 2025)

Amazon. The Bookshop.

Here is the hardback case cover …