Australian Women Short Story Writers: A Selective Bibliography

Compiled by Ewa Gajer

Prof. Julian Croft, Dr Ewa Gajer and Dr Shirley Walker at the launch of Australian Women Short Story Writers

The short story has always been a powerful mode of literary expression in Australia. As a literary genre, it differs from the novel in the way it creates an artistic impression and this is undoubtedly one of the main reasons for its popularity both with writers and with the reading public.

The short story has a long tradition among Australian women writers. What makes it popular is the fact that it can be written much more quickly than the novel and sold more easily and this has always been important to women writers. Australian women's short stories have been characterised by versatility and, quite often, by a combination of various modes of writing. There have been a number of women whose ideas have paved the way for other women writers and/or who have influenced short story writing in general.

How to Read This Bibliography

This work is a selective Bibliography of short stories written by Australian women authors from 1846 to 1987. Stories written for children are not included in the Bibliography unless they appeared in adult anthologies or magazines. The question of whether to list an author under her real or pen-name proved to be a difficult one. I have decided to use the writers' real names (with cross references given) due mainly to the fact that quite a few authors used many pseudonyms. The entries are arranged under the name of the author with dates of birth and death given, where these are available. Often, for various reasons, these dates were not available.

Details under each name are organized in three groupings:

1. Stories published in literary collections

2. Stories published in anthologies and which have not been published in collections. These are arranged in alphabetical order according to the title.

3. Stories published in literary magazines which have not been included in collections or anthologized. This section concentrates mostly on modern literary magazines although the first thirty years of The Bulletin are also included. These stories are also arranged in alphabetical order according to the title.

A complete list of all anthologies and magazines cited is given in the Index.

The current print-run of this Bibliography has sold out.

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