Feminists have long known that it' s all connected. The stories, the families, the country, the River. In this anthology, poets and short story writers create worlds with words. This book includes stories that draw on mythic traditions rewritten for our time. There are thieves, grandmothers, teenagers breaking out, dark caves to explore and real estate to sell; there are mysteries from the grave, experiments that go wrong, road trips, a circus, an opera, families that break and families that hold together; there are birds and animals and babies, and there is the pandemic. There is stillness and movement; closeness and distance. This eclectic range of authors brings their unique perspectives to storytelling as they each grapple to understand the past and meet the challenges ahead, daring to share their joy and pain, their fear and anger, their hopes and disappointments. These are women who dare to remember, to claim their own stories and to wonder what may have been.barn gate sign tomb squares flash by & circlestoo the sun sadly buried a badly hung moon how I love the geometry of silence sometimes I stop to swig down a sight or lap at a wound or forget – ‘ Suburu' by Jordie AlbistonThe echo of these words is like a prose of rain. Falling in great blasts of wind or in a drizzle of depression. Which words do we want? The ones that mean something. Or a fabrication of reality?– ‘ Ulyssea' by Susan HawthorneAll the stories I can think of turn out to be full of traps for the unsuspecting.– ‘ Keep Telling' by Marion MoltenoMemory' s a burden, forgetting even more so.– ‘ Lost Bird' by Merlinda Bobis Contributors include Usha Akella, Jordie Albiston, Merlinda Bobis, Angela Costi, Mary Goslett, Susan Hawthorne, Sandy Jeffs, Renate Klein, Carol Lefevre, Lizz Murphy, Suniti Namjoshi, Fiona Place, Lucy Sussex, Patricia Sykes, Aviva Xue and more.
