'Joe Bugden holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney (with a double major in Literature and Music), and a Master of Letters degree (in American Literature) from the University of New England. Joe has had some of his short fiction published in various journals, and he also composes music. The Listening Post (for solo viola) was commissioned by the Hobart City Council, and has been included in a soundscape as part of the City of Hobart Memorial to recipients of the Victoria Cross. Joe’s first string quartet was premiered by the Rubio Quartet (from Belgium) at the 2004 Canberra International Chamber Music Festival. Joe has also composed two chamber operas, Death by Defenestration and The Call of Aurora, which is based on the story of the Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson. Incidental Dreams from a Myoclonic Jerk is Joe’s first published collection of short stories. The collection is inhabited by characters drawn from unexceptional circumstances, whose lives are touched by love and loss, by regret and remorse, and who are placed in small and domestic settings as an examination of the everyday, and as a metaphor for the universal and ubiquitous conditions of life.' (Publication summary)
