Cirrus@Austlit

'Every year for the past ten, the Sleepers editors have called for stories from around Australia - any length up to 10,000 words. The result is always a heartbreaking and hilarious combination of tales from established authors alongside emerging and completely new authors. Many Sleepers Almanac stories have gone on to be selected for the Best Australian Stories, a testament to the high quality of the stories in here. As this is the final Sleepers Almanac, this will become a collector’s edition.' (Publication summary)

'The characters in Jennifer Down’s Pulse Points live in small dusty towns, glittering exotic cities and slow droll suburbs; they are mourners, survivors and perpetrators. 

'In the award-winning ‘Aokigahara’, a young woman travels to the sea of trees in Japan to say goodbye. In ‘Coarsegold’, a woman conducts an illicit affair while her recovering girlfriend works the overnight motel shift in the middle of nowhere. In ‘Dogs’, Foggo runs an unruly gang of bored, cruel boys with a scent for fresh meat. In ‘Pressure Okay’ a middle-aged man goes to the theatre, gets a massage, remembers his departed wife, navigates the long game of grief with his adult daughter.' (Publication Summary)