Something Special, Something Rare presents outstanding short fiction by Australia’s finest female writers. These are tales of love, secrets, doubt and torment, the everyday and the extraordinary. A sleepy town is gripped by delusory grief after the movie being filmed there wraps and leaves. A lingering heartbreak is replayed on Facebook. An ordinary family walks a shaky line between hopelessness and redemption. Brilliant, shocking and profound, these tales will leave you reeling in ways that only a great short story can. Kate Grenville * Mandy Sayer * Penni Russon * Favel Parrett * Tegan Bennett Daylight * Sonya Hartnett * Isabelle Li * Gillian Essex * Brenda Walker * Gillian Mears * Fiona MacFarlane * Joan London * Karen Hitchcock * Charlotte Wood * Tara June Winch * Cate Kennedy * Alice Pung * Anna Krien * Delia Falconer * Rebekah Clarkson ‘This collection is a fantastic line-up of some of Australia’s best writers who simply happen to be women ... the themes explored are as wide-ranging and eclectic as the writers.’ —Sunday Age ‘All the stories here justify that use of “out-standing” in the collection’s subtitle. If pushed to choose one standout, for me it is Favel Parrett’s ‘Lebanon’, which in its three pages manages to convey more emotion than some stories do in 300 ... This beautiful meditation on loss and belonging evokes the Australian tyranny of distance and is a fine example what the short-story form can achieve.’ —The Australian ‘Perfect fodder for a Sunday arvo on the couch, these charming, funny, touching short stories from well-known Australian female writers are what winter was made for.’ —Cosmopolitan ‘A wonderful selection ... the strength of the collection is that it doesn’t define the Australian woman writer as a particular situation and includes writers from various social and cultural backgrounds.’ —Artshub

This story was first published in Winter's Tales No. 3 in 1957. It was also published in 1959 in Japan in an English language textbook with Japanese annotations.

Everybody thinks they know this story. But do they? If you took a bird’s-eye view of any sprawling Australian regional town, you’d see ordinary Australians living on their ordinary suburban blocks. Get closer. Peer through a window. In the town of Mount Barker, you might see Nathan Hearle obsessively recording the bark of a neighbourhood dog, or the Wheeler family sitting down for a meal and trying to come to terms with a shocking discovery. You might hear tales of fathers and their wayward sons, of widows who can’t forgive themselves, of children longed for and lost, of thwarted lust and of pure love. Within the shadows is an unspeakable crime. Rebekah Clarkson has created a compelling, slow-burning portrait of a town in the midst of major change as it makes the painful transformation from rural idyll to aspirational suburbia. What looked like redemption is now profound loss. What seemed spiteful can now be forgiven. A novel in stories, Barking Dogs is an assured debut from one of Australia’s most respected storytellers.

Introduction: In the opulent kingdom of Siam, where tradition and honor rule, a love story unfolds that transcends boundaries and challenges societal norms. The story of Anna, an English governess, and the King of Siam, is one of passion, intrigue, and ultimately, redemption. From the moment Anna receives the royal invitation to teach the King's children, she is thrust into a world of customs and rituals that are foreign to her. But it is the King himself who captivates her, with his charisma, intelligence, and deep sense of duty to his country. As Anna and the King get to know each other, they discover a forbidden attraction that threatens to upend everything they know. Their love is both powerful and dangerous, as they must navigate the disapproval of society, the Queen's jealousy, and the King's own inner turmoil. Through it all, they remain committed to each other, even as their circumstances become increasingly dire. Love Reigns is a testament to the enduring power of love and the human spirit, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

While in Skagit County Jail in 2011, I was writing songs and the cops (having said before they needed me to be done with that) planted a letter within my personal belongings and I saw it when I got my folder back days later. The letter said, You will need to ask the deputy to see your police reports. When I showed it to the deputy, he said, We don't use those. I really think that was their way of making me stop writing songs and making art that depicts the system as failing and society as wrong. After finishing this poem, the deputy came by and went Hmph when he saw me writing! Well, here goes nothing.

Created by the publishers of EBONY. During its years of publishing it was the largest ever children-focused publication for African Americans.

At the time of his death, Stanislavsky considered Nikolai Demidov to be ‘his only student, who understands the System’. Demidov’s incredibly forward-thinking processes not only continued his teacher’s pioneering work, but also solved the problems of an actor’s creativity that Stanislavsky never conquered. This book brings together Demidov’s five volumes on actor training. Supplementary materials, including transcriptions of Demidov’s classes, and notes and correspondence from the author make this the definitive collection on one of Russian theatre’s most important figures.