Banalities for the Perfect House, performance, 2005. Photography Ryan Leech. Macquarie University Art Gallery, Exhibition Feb-March 2013
‘A reader lives a thousand lives before they die. Those who never read live only one.’
A Dance with Dragons, George RR Martin
Whilst the postgraduate contributors are a diverse bunch, with various backgrounds and motivations, they are here because they’re passionate about the written word and all have a voice that needs hearing and a story to tell. Our contributors are all undertaking postgraduate creative writing units at Macquarie University. They are simultaneously immersed in their creative world and firmly grounded in their realities of jobs, parenthood, family life, travel, and living overseas. Some have been published in journals such as Voiceworks, New Australian Stories, Island, Short and Twisted and Verandah, while others are in the process of completing short stories, articles and manuscripts for publication. Remember these names, you will see them in print soon enough. Indeed, Angie Rega’s children’s book The Cobbler Mage is being published in June by Little Fox Press.
One thing these pieces seem to have in common is their exploration of connections between people, place and time, and their study of emotional turmoil; a mother who grieves for a child born too early, a daughter who grieves her mother’s mental deterioration, a sister who explores the fragmented world through the eyes of her Autistic brother, people who live within a common environment yet lead vastly different lives. Some of the characters within these pieces reach out seeking human connection, others seek to understand the connections they already have. The works include experimentations with Abecedarian poetry, a distinctly Australian zombie dystopia, complete short fictions in traditional and more experimental forms, extracts from novels in progress and creative nonfictions that focus on memoir.
All of the 2012 postgraduate writing students were invited to submit work to this issue of The Quarry. A skeleton crew of students then volunteered to become the editorial team for the issue. The seas were often stormy and communication was difficult considering that we lived states and sometimes countries apart, but the journey also revealed some brilliant moments: the first reading of a story, the uploading of the edited works and then seeing them finished and gleaming on our beautiful Quarry site. Do as we did. Dive in. Live a little.
Susan Baxter, Helen Meany, Angela Rega, Alexandra Parsons
Editors, March 2013
Lastly, thanks go to Jane Messer, our lecturer, tutor, mentor and tireless captain on this journey. The Quarry would be just a cross on a map without her vision.
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