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The Kid on the Karaoke Stage & Other Stories

Edited by Georgia Richter and written by Naama Grey-Smith, Peter Docker, Jon Doust, Goldie Goldbloom, Pat Jacobs, Natasha Lester, Marcella Polain, Andrew Relph, Bruce Russell, and Mike Williams

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There are twenty-eight distinctive narrative voices in this anthology of new writing from Australia’s west. Combining short pieces of fiction with creative non-fiction, The Kid on the Karaoke Stage & Other Stories is a quirky and memorable collection that will resonate long after you close its covers.

Contributors include: Amanda Curtin (Winner, University of Canberra National Short Story Competition), Jon Doust (Longlist, 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award), Goldie Goldbloom (Winner, 2008 AWP Novel Award, Jerusalem Post short fiction prize), Pat Jacobs (Winner, WA Premier’s Book Awards), Alice Nelson (Winner, 2009 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist) and many more.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
‘This whole collection is brimming with original and vibrant writing.’ Brenda Walker

‘Pick up this book if you appreciate home-grown literature, and marvel at the talent that resides in the West.’ Books+Publishing

‘The authors all have links to Western Australia, but their “moments of realisation” are refreshingly global.’ Australian Book Review

‘This is one of the best books I’ve read of any genre and that’s coming from someone who normally avoids short story collections.’ Pelican

‘What is most striking about The Kid on the Karaoke Stage is its stories’ range of style and genre.’ Text Journal

Properties

ISBN	9781921696831 (Paperback)
Formats	B+ Format (208 x 140mm) (Paperback)
Categories	Short Stories & Anthologies Fiction ebooks
Pages	272
Publication Year	2011
Edition	1st
Publisher	Fremantle Press

Peter Docker

Peter Docker was born in 1964 in Narrogin, WA, the son of a motor mechanic, and grew up on remote Lort River Station, Coomalbidgup. He studied creative writing at Curtin University, receiving a BA (English) in 1987, and acting at The Victorian College of the Arts, gaining a Diploma of Dramatic Art (Acting) in 1990. Docker lives in the lands of the Kulin Nations, Victoria, and continues to write about the secret country where black and white Australia meet. He writes about the coming together – or not – of the truth and the lies in Australia, about Australia’s search for its truth, and about the myriad of ways that we can look into our hearts – and find love.   Read more
Jon Doust

Jon Doust was born in Bridgetown into a farming/retailing family and worked in both until he was old enough to know better. He should have done well in school and studied law but he found himself without the necessary marks, and working in a bank. Asked to leave, he stumbled back to the family farm and shop, then travelled, then studied, then worked as a journalist and used his funny bone to some success in comedy. Now he is best known as a writer, professional speaker, big ideas inspirer, and community projects facilitator. In the early 2000s, he studied Jungian philosophy and subsequently became an accredited deliverer of Jungian psychological theories. He is the author of three novels for adults: Boy on a Wire (longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award), To the Highlands and Return Ticket. Though each book works as a standalone title, the three form a loose trilogy called One Boy’s Journey to Man. Read more
Goldie Goldbloom

Goldie Goldbloom is the author of The Paperbark Shoe – winner of the AWP Novel Award and many other prizes, as well as a collection of short stories, You Lose These. Her work has been selected for the Best Australian Short Stories, and has been published in journals such as The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Narrative. Hunger Mountain awarded her their Nonfiction prize (2014). She teaches at the University of Chicago and at Northwestern University ever since being named as their Simon Blattner Fellow. She is the recipient of a NEA Fellowship, a Brown Foundation-Dora Maar House Fellowship, a Jerusalem Post Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Fellowship. She is a founding board member of Eshel, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ minorities and a mother of eight. Read more
Naama Grey-Smith

Naama Grey-Smith is an editor, publisher and critic based in Fremantle, Western Australia. She has edited award-winning fiction and non-fiction, writes for Australian Book Review and was among the initiators of creative journal dotdotdash. Her enduring interests are language, memory and place. Read more
Pat Jacobs

Pat Jacobs was born in Collie, Western Australia. An historian, fiction writer and reviewer, she has received awards for both history and her short fiction published in Australian journals and anthologies. Read more
Natasha Lester

Natasha Lester is the award-winning author of If I Should Lose You and What is Left Over, After. The Age newspaper has described her as a 'remarkable Australian talent'. Natasha’s short stories have appeared in collections such as Australian Love Stories and The Kid on the Karaoke Stage and she has been awarded fellowships at Varuna, The Writers’ Centre and grants by the Australia Council for her writing. As well as writing books, Natasha also teaches creative writing for the Australian Writers’ Centre and loves dressing up as pirates and princesses with her three children. Read more
Marcella Polain

Dr Marcella Polain was born in Singapore and immigrated to Perth when she was two years old, with her Armenian mother and Irish father. She has a background in theatre and screen writing, and has lectured in the Writing program at Edith Cowan University. She was founding WA editor for the national poetry journal Blue Dog, has been poetry editor for Westerly and was inaugural editor for the WA journal Indigo. She has published essays on writing and completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia in 2006. Read more
Andrew Relph

Andrew Relph is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who lives and works in Perth. Read more
Georgia Richter

Georgia Richter has an MA (Creative Writing) from the University of Western Australia and is an IPEd Accredited Editor. She has taught creative writing, professional writing and editing at the universities of Melbourne and Western Australia, as well as at Curtin University. Georgia joined Fremantle Press in 2008 as the fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry publisher. Read more
Bruce Russell

Since the mid-1970s Bruce Russell has won a number of awards and prizes for his short fiction and is represented in Fiction 88, an anthology of stories chosen by Frank Moorhouse for ABC Books. Bruce grew up in Sydney and in the early seventies lived and taught in North America. Read more
Mike Williams

Mike Williams was born in England in 1948 and came to Australia in 1963. He has had a variety of occupations including working in a bookshop in Perth. He lives with his partner, also a writer, her two sons, a housebound cat and a rotund spaniel. He writes poetry and prose when the mood is upon him. Read more

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