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)

'And You May Find Yourself is the hilarious and harrowing account of a Scottish émigré in Melbourne, in search of a job so that his young family can live, and desperately at odds with his new found role as father and bread-winner. Living in his in-laws’ lounge room with mounting disgust growing between him and his wife and a tenuous hold on an emotional connection with his two children, Paul’s life is cramped, poor, and seemingly adrift from the future he thought he would have for himself. A brave, enthralling memoir loaded with pathos that will leave you pondering on your own life journey long after you’ve turned the final page.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Set in Sydney in the first decade of the 1900s, Long Bay is based on the true case of a young female abortionist who was convicted of manslaughter and served out her sentence in the newly opened Long Bay Women’s Reformatory – the first of its kind in Australia. The woman, Rebecca Sinclair, was pregnant when she went to prison.

'Long Bay is a compelling fictional account of how Rebecca became involved in the burgeoning illegal abortion racket in Edwardian-era Sydney and how she was drawn into Donald Sinclair’s underworld. In unadorned prose, it examines the limiting effects of poverty, the mistakes we make for love, and the bond between mother and child.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the small country town of Dungower, little goes on that local journalist Joni Miller can write about in any gritty detail. But when it becomes know that a convicted child sex offender is living in their midst, the town is thrown into turmoil. Meanwhile, Joni’s own family secret begins to unravel, and the uncomfortable truth emerges as the town plays out as judge and jury.' (Publication summary)

'Set in the orthodox Jewish community in Melbourne, The Boy’s Own Manual to Being a Proper Jew, follows Yossi, the most religious do-gooder in his class, who is also a closeted homosexual, as he struggles to consolidate his religious beliefs with his sexual orientation.' (Publication summary)

'A stellar collection of some of the best short stories being written today. Delve into this renowned annual anthology and discover outstanding new fiction, and some impressive new voices in literature.' (Publication summary)

'When Rachel is pregnant with Lola, she imagines motherhood will involve pushing her sleeping infant in a pram through sun-dappled parks, suffused with the purest love she has ever felt. Then she gives birth to a screaming, colicky child in a country far from home.

'Feeling isolated and unsupported, she is plagued with thoughts of hurting her daughter. This is the story of what happens next.

'Lola is angry. Lola is hungry. Lola spits the dummy that Rachel offers up, screams louder. A man in a suit walking past gives her a look. A shut-up-your-baby kind of look.

'"Oh Lola", Rachel says, and grits her teeth to the hard slats of the bench, the painful pull of Lola's mouth. She blinks away the watery world. Above, the currawong starts up again. That eerie, weary echoing song.

'Lola doesn't look up, just works her jaw, her mouth, one hand rested on Rachel's chest. Her fingers are as wide as they will spread, as if to say, you - all of this - everything - mine.

'Limprecht writes a very different portrayal of the person who is so frequently the villain in our culture: the mother who abandons her child. Dark, honest and true, this is an extraordinary novel about parenthood and identity. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'Tranquillity Bloom belongs to her parents’ tiny religion in Ballarat, but dreams of escaping to the city. When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, her father tries to force her to get baptised. She manages to hold out, but doesn’t know how long she can last. Then her eldest brother and his Outsider wife stop attending, and Tranquillity sees exactly how painful leaving her religion can be.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Set in Singapore between the early 1970's and 1990's, Inheritance follows the fissures that develop after the disappearance of teenage Amrit. Although her absence is brief, Amrit returns as a different person. As traditional Punjabis, the family struggles to cope with who Amrit is - her manic highs and lows, and her attempts to find solutions to a problem she doesn't fully understand. Narain, Amrit's brother and closest ally, also leads a secret life in order to avoid trouble with the government. But, although he knows his father is not proud, he is not ashamed of who he is. As the family awaits a transformation in Amrit, Singapore's political, social and cultural landscape rapidly changes, and while some in the family feel this as a loss, for some of them the future will be brighter - but it's a questions of whether the changes will arrive in time. With the traditional expectations of their country on the one hand, and their own volition on the other, how will this family avoid imploding? Inheritance is a universal story of family, identity and belonging.'

'Another wonderful collection of some of the best new fiction being written today. Packed with goodies for fans of short stories and avid readers alike.

Featuring new stories from Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, Jonathan Griffiths, Rhett Davis, Madeleine Griffeth, Helen Addison-Smith, and plenty of others you may never have heard of, alongside writers you may be more familiar with: Melanie Joosten, Eric Yoshiaki Dando, SJ Finn, Laurie Steed; as well as funny pics by the inimitable Andrew Weldon.

'The Almanac celebrates the short story, and includes stories up to 10,000 words long. If you have a major crush on the short story, then this is for you.Another wonderful collection of some of the best new fiction being written today. Packed with goodies for fans of short stories and avid readers alike.

Featuring new stories from Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, Jonathan Griffiths, Rhett Davis, Madeleine Griffeth, Helen Addison-Smith, and plenty of others you may never have heard of, alongside writers you may be more familiar with: Melanie Joosten, Eric Yoshiaki Dando, SJ Finn, Laurie Steed; as well as funny pics by the inimitable Andrew Weldon.

'The Almanac celebrates the short story, and includes stories up to 10,000 words long. If you have a major crush on the short story, then this is for you.' (Publication summary)

'“Okay, tell me which you want: To be able to fly or to be invisible.”

Alek, 7

'And so begins the tale of a family finding itself, told by each of its members as they discover powers they never thought possible, from the author of the acclaimed Things We Didn’t See Coming.' (Publication summary)

'Charles Bradshaw is an ageing tycoon haunted by his past. When he suffers a heart attack, he abruptly retires and announces that he will give his fortune to charity, which leads to conflict with his wife and adult children. An old girlfriend, Anna, returns unannounced, and brings with her memories of a terrible secret that they share from their youth. Unnerved by their renewed affection for each other, Charles and Anna struggle to overcome their remorse and to make amends, but tension inevitably flares. Meanwhile, Charles's son is taking over the company and becomes intoxicated with his newfound power, intent, it seems, on self-destruction.

'His last prayer was more than forty years ago, and it went unanswered, so there is no use trying again. He can see his home in the distance: the marquee in the garden, his yacht at anchor. It is all like a simple parable. The rich man, the fat man, gets his comeuppance. Absurd, that he will be found dead wearing nothing but Speedos - it almost makes him laugh.' (From the publisher's website.)

'The Sleepers Almanac No. 6 is the latest annual collection of short stories from Sleepers, featuring new and emerging authors alongside established authors. Cate Kennedy, Jon Bauer, Kalinda Ashton, Steven Amsterdam – so many, many wonderful words and writers. Make sure you pick up a copy (it’s on sale here for only $15.00!), and if you’re a technophile AND short story enthusiast, we’ve got just the thing for you.' (Publication summary)

'When it comes to looking back over his life, Archie Fliess has got some understanding to do. So begins a sprawling reflection on his life during the early twentieth century, from the day the fortunes of brothers Archie and Reggie changed when they were taken to be the rightful owners of the property built by their grandfather in country NSW. Along their journey, they are introduced to an odd collection of family and caretakers, who don’t always have the best interests of the boys at heart. Archie becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding his grandfather’s life, and as the two stories – Archie’s and his grandfather’s – unravel, we see familiar themes of disappointment and failed ambition. Glissando – A Melodrama is a tale that travels along many threads: it is an Australian story, told in a playful, philosophical voice in a style reminiscent of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, with shades of Patrick White’s Voss. It has a burlesque bravado similar to Steve Toltz’s Fraction of the Whole. It’s an Australian classic, a satirical romp of epic proportions.' (Publication summary)

'"Sometimes the only way to manage the daily percolating drip of fear, the corrosive dread of debt and humiliation, is to embrace another sort of terror, to put oneself in danger."

'Alice and Louise are sisters united by a distant tragedy - the house fire their brother burnt to death in fourteen years ago. Alice teaches dirt-poor students at a state high school that the government wants to close while she pursues a tumultuouse relationship with a married man. Louse, a habitual liar and recovering heroin addict, has been playing "the danger game" since she was a child, and she can't stop. But when Louise decides to unravel the truth about her twin brother's death, and seeks out the mother that abandoned them, everything changes.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Money. Lust. Real estate. Sold takes a fly-on-the-wall look at Melbourne's property industry.

'Set in the leafy, prosperous inner suburbs, it follows the fortunes and misfortunes of three agents as they jostle, thrive and try to survive. It reveals the routines, the agents' listing tricks and the subtle intimidation used to motivate staff and prospective vendors at Prender and Prender Real Estate.

'Failed AFL footballer, Will Pittman, now a junior agent, is looking for redemption. Former Auckland car dealer Harry 'The Fox' Osbourne just wants to pay the kids' school fees. And Dally Love, the smiling assassin, wants it all: money, the girl, and the warm glow that comes from being seen as a good bloke.' (Publisher's blurb)

'The fifth Almanac is another collection of outstanding short fiction from new and established writers in Australia. ' (Publication summary)