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Journal

Funded by Copyright Agency, Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries, and our Founders Circle, Journal is an online column hosted on the Centre for Stories’ website showcasing writing by local, national, and international writers in support of the writers’ sector that has been heavily hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The column includes stories of creative non-fiction about real personal experiences. Stories of migration, daily life, sexuality, labour, family, and relationships. Journal serves as an immediate response, directly or indirectly, to the pandemic, and will provide a historical snapshot of those responses.

Read Journal here.

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MYTHS, DEMONS AND HEALING by Inez Tan

'I think becoming a writer means asking yourself again and again why you write, how to keep coming up with new ideas, how to trust yourself more, and how to keep falling in love with writing.'

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LIKE RIDING A BIKE by Laurie Steed

'It’s pretty funny, I’ll admit, for there is always something ridiculous about trying to have things in your control, only to stuff it up.'

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IT SMELLS LIKE HOME, IT SMELLS LIKE HERE by Saadia Ahmed

'Seeing how Australia dealt with this outbreak by putting people before profit made me slowly and gradually fall in love with a country that had started feeling like home.'

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1.8KM FROM TARGET by Frances An

'My Vietnamese-speaking capacities recalibrate after a few lines but if she hears my messed-up accent, she’ll assume I’m a whitewashed Asian who doesn’t care about our culture.'

NOT PART OF THE PLAN by Brooke Dunnell

'My imagined child would spout endless questions, half of the words indecipherable, and squeal when we failed to understand.'

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NO FICTIONS, NO MYTHS, NO LIES by Ashwani Kumar

'Everyone has a home except migrants, for it is displacement and dislocation. They build a home for everyone but can’t own it.'

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WRITING IN BLACK by Jannali Jones

'I set about writing what I thought people wanted to read about; a certain ‘Aboriginal’ experience that was expected from an Indigenous author.'

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ALL LOVE BEGINS AND ENDS THERE by Camha Pham

'How are women not revered for this rather than being relegated to the sidelines? How did men manage to turn the creation of life against us? We are life itself.'

THE UNANTICIPATED LIFE by Tinashe Jakwa

'Looking forward to the future can be a worthwhile endeavour. But, I have found that it can turn into an all-consuming practice that can have a debilitating impact.'

Graphic illustration of a cat laying on a newspaper

THE PARABLE OF BANSI LAL BABU by Rashida Murphy

'"You remember Bansi Lal Babu?" asks my father, frowning down at me as I sit on the floor of our lounge, back against the wall, ginger cat purring on my lap.'

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