New Australian Fiction 2021 is now available to read on the KYD website, exclusively for KYD Members! Find all the stories here.
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Introduction—July 2021
Last year, as New Australian Fiction 2020 went to print, we were only just beginning to understand the effects COVID-19 would have on Australia and the world at large. Shortly before copies of that anthology arrived in our Melbourne office, Victoria entered what would become an unprecedented 112-day lockdown.
Now, more than halfway through 2021, civic responses to the pandemic continue to reshape the way we are living across the country. International borders are still closed, with no reopening in sight. We’ve avoided many of the horrors experienced elsewhere, but our remoteness on the map has never felt more acute. Isolation and loneliness—their literal forms in the shape of lockdowns, travel restrictions, families and friends divided by interstate border closures, as well as the loss of loved ones to the coronavirus and other associated illnesses—have been some of the devastating consequences of this crisis.
Fortunately, for many of us, books have filled some of the space previously occupied by our usual activities. Of course, the books have always been there, but prior to this crisis they may have receded from the forefront of our daily lives. I know that I have rededicated myself to reading these past eighteen months, and have been reminded just how much books can comfort, enrich and re-energise our imaginations.
The stories in this anthology each seek to find pathways to connect with you, the reader, in a world transformed.
Spending more time with books has also meant more time to ponder writers’ craft and literary intentions. And while writing is certainly a solitary practice, literature as an art form is inclusive and expansive, which is perhaps why it is such a tonic to feelings of disconnection. In On Writers and Writing, Margaret Atwood reflects that ‘the fictional writer who writes to no one is rare’; a writer’s work is addressed to us, to you. A triangle forms between the writer, the reader and the crucial final element of the page itself, enabling this communion. ‘Respect the page,’ Atwood told her writing students years ago when she was still teaching. ‘It’s all you’ve got.’
The stories in this anthology each seek to find pathways to connect with you, the reader, in a world transformed. The cause of this transformation varies—from climate disaster, to politics and technology, to the ongoing fight for First Nations and LGBTQIA+ rights, to the intimate trials bound up in families and relationships that can completely reform personal trajectories and perspectives. And while the pandemic isn’t always written into these stories, they are each in their own way responding to how we continue to adapt to our altered lives, and what it means to live with and love others. They are written for us, and speak to us, and that is a marvellous thing.
It was an absolute pleasure working with the sixteen writers featured in this anthology, some of whom are published for the first time, selected from the more than 500 submissions to our national callout. I’d like to extend a big thank you to my colleague and Kill Your Darlings’ deputy editor, Suzy Garcia, for all her additional editorial work and support through the course of producing the book.
We hope you enjoy these stories.
Featuring: Bryant Apolonio, Alice Bishop, Lauren Aimee Curtis, Brooke Dunnell, Ashley Goldberg, Eliza Henry-Jones, Scott Limbrick, Anith Mukherjee, James Noonan, Morgan Nunan, Emily O’Grady, Daley Rangi, Mykaela Saunders, Ben Walter, Georgia White and Laura Elizabeth Woollett.
Check out the KYD Podcast to hear readings from a selection of these brilliant pieces!
