When I Become a Panther

Foreword: This fictional piece was inspired by my interest in the psychological and neurodevelopmental effects of childhood trauma, which began after reading The Boy Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz. Throughout this story, I have attempted to touch on the powerlessness felt by victims of child abuse and the…

ByLucy Smith22 September 2025

Creative

The Centre Does Hold

There all the barrel-hoops are knit, There all the serpent-tails are bit, There all the gyres converge in one, There all the planets drop in the Sun. – W. B. Yeats, Supernatural Songs, IV 'There' The Brown Betty teapot’s older than the Hills Hoist and twice as stubborn. Five generations of paddy women, and decades of…

ByAtlanta Gervasoni29 August 2025

Creative

Triptych

Constrict Me Serpent Burns the light above Does on petty eyes of mine. From high up as if to guide light To my fingertips and my knuckles. Such advice deemed little To a boy so confused, he forgot how to write. Melancholy, some shout, Others pensive, More merely stranded youth. Yet they…

BySam Singleton22 August 2025

Creative

Aithrí

In Her Name Mary Magdalene is posited as Christianity’s exemplar of repentance, the apostle of Christ, the faithful woman, freed of seven demons. Worthy of hymnal adoration, and biblical heralding… but the rankle, the blister, the problem was she was robust, energetic. A prostitute. None of which were revered in the picture of the Christian…

ByAlice Wilson6 June 2025

Creative

Oakstand: Part II

3. The great Australian emptiness. First of December 1972 | 12pm The paddocks surrounding Lance had a sense of leopard silence which engulfed him. This land was well-versed in eternity. It made its…

ByJasper Derwent1 April 2025

Creative

Oakstand: Part I

Simon: [After a pause, to MAL] I take it you’ll be barracking for Labor tonight? Mal: [Looking at him] Well I don’t anticipate yelling myself hoarse, but I’m certainly hoping for a change of government. I take it we all are?1 • Don’s Party, David Williamson, 1971 1. The left-hand of Oakstand. 28th…

ByJasper Derwent25 March 2025

Creative

Chimeric Blink

“The whole procedure will take roughly twenty minutes. You’ll feel a slight pressure behind your eyes.” Dr Abram peers through bushy black lashes and narrow, wire-rimmed spectacles, his face contorting into an expression of concern. A neuroscience researcher, it’s no mystery why he didn’t pursue general practice. This strange, neurotic little man’s weirdly contrived attempts…

ByAtlanta Gervasoni19 January 2025

Creative Poetry

IMPERMANENCE

DANCER, FIGHTER The lamp rests steady Behind a sea of black lingers. The flame, dances and rides, Upon the rhythm of passing breeze Bringing a light, A little bit of warmth, To the surrounding darkness. And for long the flame rages Neatly seated in her little glass cage, Petit to any wandering eye Yet ferocious…

BySam Singleton15 December 2024

Creative

The Myth of Genius

I am so sick of people asking me for an explanation. People can’t seem to wrap their minds around creativity – my genius. Even after I explained myself. He knew I was a genius. You can’t explain genius to someone who isn’t one; that’s what I have learned in the past few weeks. I’m an…

ByZoe Edgerley22 November 2023

Creative

Diabolical

It would be a week before the smell of rot would alert the worker on my grandfather’s farm to what had happened – to what I had done. The body of Holden was found crumpled and bloodied in a silo of grain by Hugh on his monthly equipment check-up – he noticed the stench and…

ByZoe Edgerley15 September 2023