Short Stories (books)

Forthcoming: A new collection of short fiction

Updated May 2024: I am presently working on a new collection of short stories. It is relatively early days -- possibly months or so from completion, as I would like to have a good range to select from. I may even have enough completed material for two separate collections. 

Also see the Latest Posts & Publications and Short Stories sections of this website.

Plums pic plucked from internet. Thanks.

*Already short-listed, published and prize winners:

Of my most recent finished stories, nine have already been shortlisted in leading Australian short story competitions and/or published in associated online or prize anthologies; one has won a major first prize, and another a 2nd prize. 

My short story  Shadow Dancing  is the latest to be published – in P76 Magazine, Number 8, the Sonic Poetry Festival Edition, Spring 2023. And  Shadow Dancing  is a humorous fantasy love story set in Newcastle, NSW, about a dancer smitten with his partner Luna, and eagerly awaiting her return. P76 is full of much interesting material, available from Rochford Press, see: https://rochford-pressbookshop.square.site/product/p76-issue-8-sonic-poetry-festival-special-issue/164?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

* 2020/2021: I am delighted that my short story, The Stars Shine for Bach was published in the Oz Music Trust's E-Zine, Loud Mouth. See: https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/the-stars-shine-for-bach-a-short-story-by-john-jenkins/ Also in the Oz Music Trust E-zine is my story Under His Hat: https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/under-his-hat/

Here is another recently-ish published short story, The Flower in the Buttonhole:

https://thehumanwriters.com/2022/01/08/the-flower-in-the-buttonhole/

** I am also currently hard at work completing a 'Quadrella of Novellas'.

Watch this space!

* FIRST PRIZE, 2018 Elyne Mitchell Short Story Competition

My story, The Girl Who Wasn't There won the Open Section of the 2018 Elyne Mitchell Award, for a story up to 2,500 words. 

**My completed stories include quite a variety of themes, styles and approaches: character studies, speculative fiction, tales of the uncanny, hard-nosed realism, naturalistic tales of everyday life, very dramatic stories and evocative/atmospheric ones. 

Background: I have been a keen reader of short stories and generally fascinated by short fiction ever since the mid 1970s. Many of my short stories have been published in magazines, journals, newspapers, anthologies or online. I have also co-edited two anthologies of Australian short fiction.

2017 and earlier:

Alan Marshall Short Story Award, shortlisted stories: I was shortlisted for the  Alan Marshall Short Story Award in 2022, 2018 and 2017. 

The following is a brief sampler of recently published, performed (or short-listed) pieces, going back to around 2016. 

2017: My short story, Through a Latte Darkly, was published by Margaret River Press in the prize anthology, Joiner Bay & Other Stories, edited by Ellen van Neerven, 2017. (A previous short story, That Summer at Manly, was published in the MRP 2013 prize anthology, Knitting and Other Stories. 

2012 - 2017.  My short story, Her Ladyship's Pleasure, which was shortlisted in the 2015 Griffith University Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize, was included in Volume 14 of the online-only magazine, Review of Australian Fiction. 

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