Publications & Plays

Susan’s writing has been published in the following publications.

SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR/CREATIVE NON-FICTION & POETRY:

‘Bone on Bone’, a short fiction piece published in Westerly OSI18, a collaboration between Westerly and The Writers’ Collective featuring the poetry and prose of sixteen writers, and guest edited by Rashida Murphy. 

The edition is free to download here.

 

‘The Cycle’ and ‘The room they no longer enter’, two microlit pieces in Petrichor, a Zine by members from the Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre Inc., 2025. An online version of the Zine is available to view online or download from https://www.pcwc.org.au/ (at the bottom of the Home page).

 

‘Shattered Facades’, microlit piece in Play, the anthology from the 2023 NWF/Joanne Burns Microlit Award. Purchase here.

 

 

 

 

‘He Never Did Like Snakes’, flash fiction in Three Can Keep a Secret, Night Parrot Press anthology, 2022. Purchase here or from these retailers.

 

 

 

 

‘The Sword Dance’, a short non-fiction piece in Exisle Publishing’s Love and Loss book, 2020. Purchase here.

 

 

 

 

‘Lost on the Rua DQ Instituto Industrial’, poetry, in Broken: In My View 2019, a compilation of the winning short stories, poems and photography from the ‘In my View’ competition. Conducted by the West Australian Photographic Federation, 2019.

 

 

‘Sweet and Sour’, a short fiction piece first published in Peregrine XXXIII journal, 2019. Purchase from Amazon.

Also published in the 2025 International Women’s Day edition of the Raine Square Short Story Station. 

 

 

 

 

‘Black on Black’, a creative non-fiction piece in Westerly: New Creative, an online journal published by The Westerly Centre, University of Western Australia, 2016. You can download this edition for free here.

‘The Long Goodbye’, a short story in the anthology Other Voices: a collection of short stories. Published by the Advanced Writers Group at Peter Cowan Writers Centre Inc, 2012. The anthology is available in e-book format from the following e-tailers:
Amazon Australia  Amazon Kindle  Google books  Everand  and Kobo.

 

 

‘The Hyenas’ and ‘Escaping the Silence’, short stories published in Interpretive Ink, an anthology by the Edith Cowan University Community Writing Class, 2007.

 

 

 

 

MICRO FICTION – morsels you can sample over a tea or coffee:

‘They Came in Search of Riches, Kalgoorlie, 1895’, longlisted in the WritingWA Love to Read Local Flashscapes Competition, 2024.

Her baby daughter’s grave was now one of many dug in Kalgoorlie’s parched red earth. Typhoid, they said, rampant among the prospectors’ tents with water scarce and sanitation absent. Hanni refused to cry. Another child sacrificed to her husband’s folly, abandoning Schleswig-Holstein for one goldrush after another in this bewildering land. She thought of four-year-old Carl, lost to fever in Cooktown. Hanni clutched the wishbone brooch made of Palmer River gold; an extravagance they could ill afford meant to summon luck. Luck, she knew, was like gold, an elusive promise they would chase and never grasp. She yearned for home. 

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‘But Now I See’, flash fiction, published in the Winter 2025 edition of the Raine Square Short Story Station. 

Bagpipes invade the daybreak quiet, luring her across the road to the beach. A biting wind cuts through her puffer vest and numbs her face. Steam escapes from her mouth with every exhale. Isla passes through the beach car park. Cars and vans are clustered together, windows covered in aluminium foil, sunshades, or curtains. There’s safety here in numbers, but she doesn’t envy them sleeping in a vehicle in the cold. The barbecues, toilets, and drinking fountains at the park offer some basic facilities for people who are homeless during the housing crisis. How long though until the council decides they must be moved on instead of addressing the need?

Down on the beach, foam-capped waves assault the shore, dumping piles of seaweed in their wake. The seaweed forms towering mounds on the sand. Her nose wrinkles at the overwhelming rotten egg smell.

The tune of Amazing Grace emanates from bagpipes somewhere up in the sand dunes. She follows the sound. It’s coming from the top of the exercise tower – a series of stairs and platforms meant to replicate Jacob’s Ladder in the city. It is now the domain of fitness disciples and energetic children, or those willing to make a slow and steady climb for the panoramic 180-degree view of the ocean and Rottnest Island it offers on a sunny day.

She’s been training for this moment since last year. A deep breath in, and up the stairs she goes. Jogging. Step after step. Reach the platform, then power up the next set. The burn starts halfway up the tower. Calf, thigh, and butt muscles tighten. Breath is laboured. She greedily sucks at the air. It chills her lungs. She sneaks a glimpse at the peak but doesn’t see him. Still, she presses on. She’s breathing hard now. Lactic acid creeps into her muscles. Legs slow in rebellion. The music is fading the closer she gets to the top. Notes fleeing from her approach.

Isla reaches the summit and frantically scans the park, beach path, and car park below. Where did he go? It seems he has disappeared. She looks again. A flash of tartan scarf amidst the cars catches her eye. He’s running away. Bastard.
Every year, her father plays her mother’s farewell song. He never stays to confront a daughter’s accusations or to acknowledge his guilt.

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‘Life Lessons 2022: Onion Peeling for Grandmothers’, flash fiction, entered in the WritingWA Love to Read Local Flash Fiction Competition, 2022. 

Alena loathes onion peeling. Removing the outer layers to reach the inner core, ready for chopping. The pungent aroma brings forth tears and bitter memories.

She’d been preparing Ukrainian borscht, granddaughter Natalyia in the next room playing with the Babushka dolls. Wooden grandmothers lined up in a row. Natalyia cradled the smallest one in her palm, singing a lullaby.

There was no warning. The explosion threw Alena against the wall. She struggled to her feet. The living room was gone, Natalyia buried in the rubble. When Alena prised open the child’s fingers, the baby Babushka was crushed in her hand.

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‘The Visit’, a micro fiction piece written to three prompts with a word limit of up to 50 words. Selected as a monthly winner in the KSP Quarantine Quill competition. Published in the KSP Monthly e-newsletter, May 2020.   

Photo by Christopher Conde via Pexels

Always there to welcome her home. Memories of frosty nights cocooned in her dressing-gown, sipping warm milk by the fireplace. Pet gecko, a comforting presence on her hand. After her mother died, she found it on the quilt, withered and unmoving. The grief was too much to bear.

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Anticipation, a micro fiction piece written to three prompts with a word limit of up to 50 words. Selected as a monthly winner in the KSP Quarantine Quill competition. Published in the KSP Monthly e-newsletter, June 2020.

 

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PLAY READINGS/PERFORMANCES:

Susan’s plays have either been performed or had a ‘cold reading’.