Australian Shorts

Karen Hollands
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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.

  1. Aug 31

    Australian Shorts Episode 13 Tony Birch

    Episode 13 of Australian Shorts features Tony Birch. Tony is the author of four novels: Women & Children, which won the 2024 The Age Fiction Book of the Year; The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2012. He has also published two poetry books and four short story collections. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. In 2025 he released Pictures of You: Collected Stories, a retrospective of his best short stories from the past two decades. Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist, and is currently the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. In this episode, Tony reads Bobby Moses and explains what was on his mind when writing the two characters in this story. Our conversation then touches on the power of storytelling, using dialogue and symbolism, giving context to characters’ behaviour, where his obligation to write comes from and who are some of his favourite short story writers. This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Magandjin, Brisbane, and on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm, Melbourne.  Thanks for listening to Australian Shorts Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please like it and share.  Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 13 Tony Birch

  2. Aug 2

    Australian Shorts Episode 12 Fiona Robertson

    Episode 12 of Australian Shorts features Fiona Robertson. Fiona’s short story collection If You’re Happy was shortlisted for the Richell Prize in 2018 and won the Glendower Award for an unpublished manuscript in the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards. The collection was published by UQP in 2022 and shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Literary Awards. Fiona is a writer and doctor and lives in Magandjin (Brisbane), Australia.  In this episode, Fiona reads Happy Hour from her collection. She then talks about where the idea for this story came from, how she finds writing hard but ultimately satisfying and why she recommends ‘resting’ early drafts of a story before sending them off for publication. This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Magandjin, Brisbane. Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 12 Fiona Robertson

  3. Jun 30

    Australian Shorts Episode 11 Laura Jean McKay

    Episode 11 of Australian Shorts features Laura Jean McKay. Laura was the 2025 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow to Cork, Ireland and is the author of two short story collections, Holiday in Cambodia and Gunflower. Her novel The Animals in That Country won the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 2021. The French translation, Les animaux de ce pays, won the 2025 Prix Gargantua. Laura teaches Creative Writing at Massey University. She is based in Magandjin (Brisbane) Australia. In this episode Laura reads A Sensation of Whirling and a Loss of Balance from her collection, Gunflower. She then discusses the fly-away comment that led her to write this story and talks about why animals are integral to many of her stories. Laura also explains how short story writing helps her to write novels. This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Magandjin, Brisbane. Thanks for listening to Australian Shorts Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 11 Laura Jean McKay

  4. May 31

    Australian Shorts Episode 10 Melanie Cheng

    Episode 10 of Australian Shorts features Melanie Cheng. Melanie is a writer and general practitioner based in Naarm, Melbourne. Her debut short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2018 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction and her novel, Room for a Stranger, was longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award. Her latest novel, The Burrow, has been translated and published internationally in North America, Hungary, Spain and Turkey. It was shortlisted for several Australian awards including the 2025 Stella Prize. Her short stories have appeared in Meanjin, The Griffith Review, The Big Issue and World Literature Today among many others. In this episode Melanie reads Stone Baby, published in World Literature Today in 2025 (https://worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/january/stone-baby-melanie-cheng). Melanie discusses the genesis of this story and how it took two decades to write. She talks about how her work as a doctor influences her writing and vice versa and gives us some tips on what makes a short story stand out in competitions. This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Meanjin, Brisbane, and on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm, Melbourne.  Thanks for listening to Australian Shorts Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 10 Melanie Cheng

  5. Apr 30

    Australian Shorts Episode 09 Alex Cothren

    Episode 9 of Australian Shorts features Alex Cothren. Alex is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Flinders University. He is a winner of the Carmel Bird, William van Dyke, Griffith Review Emerging Voices and Peter Carey Awards for short fiction. His satirical story collection, Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere, was published in 2025 by Pink Shorts Press. Alex lives and works on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people. In this episode, Alex reads The Juansons from his collection and explains why this story took five years to write and how it went from a 30,000-word polished novella to a 3000-word short story. Alex also explains the purpose and potential dangers of satire and reminds us that the harder things are to do in art, the better our art usually ends up.  This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people of Magandjin (Brisbane) and on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people (Adelaide).  Thanks for listening to Australian Shorts Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.     Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 09 Alex Cothren

  6. Apr 1

    Australian Shorts Episode 08 Cate Kennedy

    Episode 8 of Australian Shorts features Cate Kennedy. Cate writes across genres and is widely published but perhaps best known as a short story author. Her two collections, Dark Roots and Like a House on Fire have been used as teaching texts on the Victorian Secondary School syllabus for several years and she works as a fiction advisor at Pacific University’s Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing program in Oregon. In this episode, Cate reads Little Plastic Shipwreck from her collection, Like a House on Fire (Scribe) and talks about why this particular story is still mysterious to her. Cate also discusses many aspects of writing, including the value in capturing the small, ordinary details of our lives, plus fiction’s great superpower: its ability to reveal a character’s sense of interiority. She explains the power of the three layers of a character’s “self” and the richness that the gap between these provides to both reader and writer.  This episode was recorded on the unceded lands of the Yuggera and Turrbul people in Brisbane and the traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung people in Castlemaine, Victoria. Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 08 Cate Kennedy

  7. Feb 28

    Australian Shorts Episode 07 Jane Rawson

    Episode 7 of Australian Shorts features Jane Rawson. Jane is the author of six books, most recently the essay collection Human/Nature: On life in a wild world (New South 2025) and the speculative historical fiction novel A History of Dreams (Brio 2022) which was longlisted for the Tasmanian Literary Awards. Her essays and short stories have been published widely. Jane is the Editorial Manager of Island magazine and lives in the Huon Valley in Lutruwita, Tasmania.  In Episode 7 Jane reads her story Kangaroo, which was published in KYD’s 2019 Speculative Showcase, and originally published in the Ticonderoga anthology Ecopunk! as The wrong side of history.   Hear Jane discuss different types of speculative fiction, the role imagination plays and why she loves this genre. We also discuss her approach to writing, her role as an editor of short stories, and how she views the current status of publishing short stories in Australia.     This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people and on the traditional lands of the Melukerdee people, who did not survive colonisation. I acknowledge the ongoing custodianship of the Palawa people of Lutruwita Tasmania. Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 07 Jane Rawson

  8. Jan 31

    Australian Shorts Episode 06 Kate Ryan

    Episode 6 of Australian Shorts features Kate Ryan. Kate is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, manuscript assessor, writing mentor and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies and her debut novel The Golden Book was published in 2021. Her latest novel HOUSE explores the intersection between families, architecture and emotion.  In this episode Kate reads her story The Mighty have Fallen published in the Summer 2022 issue of Meanjin. Then we chat about the broad themes influencing her work, the tips she gives when mentoring writers and how reading helps when her writing stalls. This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people in Meanjin, Brisbane and on the lands of the Wurundjeri people in Naarm, Melbourne.   Australian Shorts, a podcast about short stories written by Australian authors, is produced by Karen Hollands

    Australian Shorts Episode 06 Kate Ryan
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Karen Hollands
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Australian Shorts
  • Show Website
    Australian Shorts

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