Wayne Macauley Wayne Macauley i(A36707 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Five Anecdotes Wayne Macauley , 2022 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 2-8 April 2022;
1 Management Consultant Wayne Macauley , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10-16 October 2020;
1 Elevator Repairman Wayne Macauley , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10-16 October 2020;
1 Beggar Wayne Macauley , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10-16 October 2020;
1 5 y separately published work icon Simpson Returns Wayne Macauley , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2019 15404200 2019 single work novella

'Ninety years after they were thought to have died heroically in the Great War, the stretcher-bearer Simpson and his donkey journey through country Victoria, performing minor miracles and surviving on offerings left at war memorials. They are making their twenty-ninth, and perhaps final, attempt to find the country’s famed Inland Sea.

'On the road north from Melbourne, Simpson and his weary donkey encounter a broke single mother, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, a refugee who has lost everything, an abused teenager and a deranged ex-teacher. These are society’s downtrodden, whom Simpson believes can be renewed by the healing waters of the sea.

'In Simpson Returns, Wayne Macauley sticks a pin in the balloon of our national myth. A concise satire of Australian platitudes about fairness and egalitarianism, it is timely, devastating and witheringly funny.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Idle Hands Wayne Macauley , 2018 single work short story
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 233 2018; (p. 43-46)
1 Six New Anecdotes Wayne Macauley , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Best of The Lifted Brow Volume Two 2017;

'A Comedian well-known on the so-called comedy circuit for his dry tales told of a childhood lived in a small country town, in which he, the Comedian, always played the loser, having married a pop singer and aspiring actress with whom he now lived in a large house in Camberwell, could not understand why one night at a high-profile comedy venue a heckler should stand up and start repeatedly screaming the word Hypocrite! at him. Indeed, it was said of this Comedian, who, shortly after this incident, retreated behind the high walls of his Camberwell mansion, that he was never so funny as he had been before it, although in the opinion of many he had never been funny at all.'  (Publication abstract)

1 1 y separately published work icon Caravan Angus Cerini , Patricia Cornelius , Wayne Macauley , Melissa Reeves , 2017 12163284 2017 single work drama

The dilapidated old caravan might be full of musty carpet and faded dreams, but for years a mother and daughter have called it home.

With nowhere else to go, Judy and daughter Donna live on top of each other, knowing the other won’t leave: they’re stuck, and will be till the end.

Judy holds court from the caravan’s double bed, surrounded by pills, a breathing machine and a flat-screen TV. Donna is just desperate not to die there. Donna’s looking to be whisked away by a Tinder date, but as the phone pings and Judy sucks oxygen from a mask in the tiny, cluttered space, they bicker and make up, scream and threaten violence and dream of better things.

Bitter and hilarious, tender and toxic, Caravan is a darkly comic look at life on the margins and the universal need for love.' (Production Summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon Some Tests Wayne Macauley , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2017 11323856 2017 single work novel science fiction

'It begins with the normally healthy Beth - aged-care worker, wife of David, mother of Lettie and Gem - feeling vaguely off-colour. A locum sends her to Dr Yi for some tests. 'There are a few things here that aren't quite right,' says Dr Yi, 'and sometimes it is these little wrongnesses that can lead us to the bigger wrongs that matter.' Beth is sent on to Dr Twoomey for more tests. Then to another specialist, and another referral after referral sees her bumped from suburb to suburb, bewildered, joining busloads of people all clutching white envelopes and hoping for answers. But what is actually wrong with Beth - is anything, in fact, wrong with her? And what strange forces are at work in the system? As the novel reaches its stunning climax, we realise how strange these forces are. Unnerving and brilliant, Some Tests is about waking up one morning and finding your ordinary life changed forever.' (Publication summary)

1 Far Enough : The Perculiar World of the Plains Wayne Macauley , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: The Simple Act of Reading 2015; (p. 145-150)
1 A Comment about Free Market Forces Wayne Macauley , 2015 single work short story
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 218 2015; (p. 59-64)
1 7 y separately published work icon Demons Wayne Macauley , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2014 7472205 2014 single work novel

'They were going to tell stories. Let's go away for the weekend, said Megan, and leave our phones behind and turn off the computers and television and stop time because time is moving too fast and soon we'll all be saying where the hell did our lives go? We'll cook some food and drink some wine and each tell a story.

'It is the middle of winter. Seven friends travel to a remote coastal beach house for the weekend. Without phones, internet or television, they sit around the fireplace, telling stories – each exposing the foibles of humankind. But as a storm rolls in and torrential rain cuts the party off from the outside world, it soon becomes clear that some secrets are best kept hidden.

'Demons is an extraordinary novel by one of Australia's great writers.' (Publication summary)

1 Keilor Cranium Wayne Macauley , 2012 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 71 no. 4 2012; (p. 90-97) The Best Australian Stories 2013 2013; (p. 88-95)
1 The Story of Jesus Wayne Macauley , 2012 single work short story
— Appears in: The Big Issue Australia , 28 August - 10 September no. 414 2012; (p. 44-47)
1 My Favourite (Australian) Novel : Mapping Our National Anxieties Wayne Macauley , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 5-6 May 2012; (p. 18-19)
Edited version of Macauley's introduction to the 2012 Text Publishing edition of The Plains.
1 Gerald Murnane's The Plains : An Alternative Australian Literature Wayne Macauley , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , April no. 9 2012; (p. 25-31)
'The dust jacket of the first edition of The Plains describes it as 'a lament for an Australian literature that ha never been written'. Thirty years later this strange, disquieting, curious little book continues to stand almost alone in the library of alternative Australian fiction. But make no mistake: this is no archaeological artefact. The Plains is a masterpiece, and, word for word, sentence for sentence, one of the best novels ever written in this country...' (Source: author's introduction, 25)
1 Stockbroker Wayne Macauley , 2011 single work short story
— Appears in: Antithesis , no. 21 2011; (p. 165)
1 Pharmacist Wayne Macauley , 2011 single work short story
— Appears in: Antithesis , no. 21 2011; (p. 165)
1 Funeral Director Wayne Macauley , 2011 single work short story
— Appears in: Antithesis , no. 21 2011; (p. 164)
1 Cafe Owner Wayne Macauley , 2011 single work short story
— Appears in: Antithesis , no. 21 2011; (p. 164)
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