Griffith REVIEW 26 : Stories for Today

The world, and Australia, is now a profoundly different place—interconnected and yet fractured—and the old stories have lost their relevance. Political and marketing rhetoric has reached its use-by date, and new definitions will be distilled from the work of artists.

Stories for Today features new fiction by established, mid-career and emerging writers who make sense of the country as it is now, in a borderless, globalised world balanced between crisis and opportunity. Voices from home and the Australian diaspora explore the effects of migration, easy movement, pandemics, recession, connection with Asia, the service economy and more. Just as fiction provided the enduring images and notions of Australia at other key points in our history, so we need stories to do this today. Articulating the new values—sustainability, tolerance and accountability—shouldn’t be left to politicians and advertisers. It is something artists and writers are well equipped to explore and express.

This edition also features a series of short essays commissioned from leading writers, who will engage with questions about why writing fiction matters, how it differs from other forms of communication, and what it contributes to our culture and understanding of ourselves. Stories for Today will endure as a landmark fiction anthology of our time.

Includes new fiction by: Frank Moorhouse, Louis Nowra, Georgia Blain, Danielle Wood, Toni Jordan, Rodney Hall and John Kinsella.

Praise for Griffith REVIEW 26:

‘Griffith REVIEW’s first fiction issue is a bold move…it acknowledges the importance of short-form writing in modern Australian literature, and provides something for every reader to enjoy…This is a solid collection from Griffith REVIEW, which is becoming more readable with every issue.’

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