Australian Shorts
A monthly podcast about short stories written by Australian authors. Hosted by Karen Hollands, each episode features a short story read by its author followed by a conversation about their story.
Australian Shorts
Australian Shorts Episode 01 Amanda O'Callaghan
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Welcome to Episode 1 of Australian Shorts. This podcast series begins with Amanda O’Callaghan.
Amanda has written and published many short stories and her fiction has been awarded and shortlisted in numerous contests in Australia, Ireland, and the UK.
Her story collection, This Taste for Silence (UQP), was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize (UK). It was described as “a stunning achievement” by Readings’ Ellen Cregan, with stories that maintain “a subtle, compelling sense of intrigue that makes each story highly readable without compromising the quality and detail of her writing.”
In this episode, Amanda reads Things from her collection. Then we chat about her writing process and how writing short stories differs from writing long form and flash fiction.
You will hear Amanda talk about the power that lies in a good short story, the courage it takes to write, “the tea bag process” of writing and why Amanda gets surprised by the stories she puts on the page.
This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people in Meanjin, Brisbane.