Author Archives: gretchenshirm

The Crying Room Launch

Come along to the launch of The Crying Room, at my local bookstore Ariel Books in Paddington, on Thursday, 6 July 2023. The Crying Room will be launched by the multi-talented, novelist and critic, James Bradley. There will be wine! Where: Ariel Booksellers, 326 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW 2021. When: 6 for 6.30pm on ThursdayContinue reading “The Crying Room Launch”

The Crying Room

The Crying Room movingly explores family boundaries and stories, finding original ways to express the contradictory experience of belonging to a family, and being an individual at the same time. When Bernie and her husband move to Ballina in coastal NSW, Bernie Rodgers finds that there is more than a physical distance separating her fromContinue reading “The Crying Room”

‘The Closure Company’ in Griffith Review’s ‘States of Mind’

I am very pleased to have my short story ‘The Closure Company’ appearing in Griffith Review‘s issue 72, ‘States of Mind’ https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/the-closure-company/ I’m thrilled that the story appears alongside some excellent work from Kathryn Heyman, Lech Blaine, Vicki Laveau-Harvie, Loki Liddle amongst others. ‘States of Mind’ is on sale now. Or better yet, subscribe toContinue reading “‘The Closure Company’ in Griffith Review’s ‘States of Mind’”

New story ‘Porcelain’ in Overland

I am so pleased that my story ‘Porcelain’ from my novel in stories The Crying Room, is published in the current issue of Overland. You can read it and the other excellent essays, stories and poetry by buying issue 240, or online here: https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-240/ Or better still, subscribe and a beautiful copy of Overland willContinue reading “New story ‘Porcelain’ in Overland”

‘The Crying Room’ in KYD New Australian Fiction

I’m a bit late with this, but my short story ‘The Crying Room’ was published in last year’s Kill Your Darling’s New Australian Fiction Anthology. The Anthology has since gone into reprint, yippee! You can purchase a copy at your favourite local bookshop, or here: https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/shop/new-australian-fiction-2019/ When the Anthology was reviewed in The Australian onContinue reading “‘The Crying Room’ in KYD New Australian Fiction”

Helen Garner’s Collected Stories

  Helen Garner’s Postcards from Surfers was a revelation to me when I started writing. The silences within her stories are so bold and radical, it really showed me that writing is as much about what is on the page as what’s left off it. The book also contains one of my favourite sentences ofContinue reading “Helen Garner’s Collected Stories”

My review of Nicole Krauss’s Forest Dark appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald over the weekend and can be read, here. Reading Forest Dark, was one of the most disorientating experiences I’ve ever had reading a book. For much of the time, I found the book difficult to read, the prose leaden and quiteContinue reading

Essay on Bernhard Schlink’s The Woman on the Stairs

I’ve always admired Bernhard Schlink’s fiction, particularly his short stories published in his 2000 collection Flights of Love. I think it’s the preoccupation with guilt and culpability that interests me so much. Although Schlink is more concerned with the peculiar German experience, they are emotions that plague us all to a certain extent. Here‘s me onContinue reading “Essay on Bernhard Schlink’s The Woman on the Stairs”