SHORT STORIES, 2021

With a great love for books, Lisa Sewards explored short stories during Melbourne’s 2020 COVID-19 restrictions. Each book turned into a capsule of reflection and hope and led to a new body of work celebrating the short story genre in Australian literature, from the very first Australian short story book that was published, to those by contemporary authors and writers.

The artworks were inspired by the gifted words of Australian Authors and Writers and their short story collections including Mary Vidal (Tales for the bush – first short story book published 1845), Henry Lawson (The Drover’s Wife), A S Patric’ (The Butcherbird Stories), Tim Winton (The Turning), Dr. Joshua Lobb (The Flight of Birds), Josephine Rowe (Here until August), Nam Le (The boat), Alice Bishop (A Constant Hum), Maxine Beneba Clarke (Foreign Soil), Peter Carey (The fat man in history), Cate Kennedy (Like a house on fire), Dr. Laurie Steed (Nova), Bec Yule (Dog Walking in the time of Corona), Margo Lanagan (Singing my sister down), Tony Birch (Father’s Day), Sean O’Beirne (A couple of things before the end), Colin Varney (Solo).

One artist book of etchings was acquired by The STATE LIBRARY VICTORIA for their rare book collection “Their words are magic’, concertina artist book, inspired by the words of Nam Le and Bec Yule.

City of Melbourne for funding support via their Arts Grant program
State Library Victoria for research assistance
Author Laurie Steed for his generous collaboration
Trudy Rice for her Curatorial work
Mary Lou Jelbart for her beautiful opening reception words
Author Colin Varney for participating in a Q&A at the gallery
Loni Jeffs for her catalogue essay