Publications

Dancing Dragons is the 8th anthology of Romanian/Australian poetry and prose initiated by poet and editor Mihaela Cristescu in partnership with NEW Writers’ Group Inc.

 Between wisdom, strength, hidden knowledge, fertility, great power, good luck and pure evil, we invite our inner dragons to dance with us in fairy tales and poetry, memories, journeys or life experiences: DANCING DRAGONS – a volume offering 40 distinct chronicles from each writer published in our eighth edition of the Anthology.  

My contribution is a short piece called "The Reluctant Lover" Inspired by an 1898 children's story by Kenneth Grahame, called "The Reluctant Dragon."

To be Launched at State Library NSW.

English Editor: Sue Crawford
Illustrations: Luminita Lou Serbanescu Art
NWG President: Carol Amos  

 For more than two years, Australia, like the rest of the world, has been in the grip of the COVID pandemic. One result has been the erosion of people’s wellbeing, including their connectedness to others, physical and mental health. While participating in arts and culture has been identified as beneficial, wholistic approaches that consider the interrelated challenges and benefits of lived wellbeing is less well understood. 

Research into Cultural Wellbeing by a team at Western Sydney University culminated in a publication comprising of written and visual works inspired by the Cultural Wellbeing Framework.

I contributed two pieces to the project:

• Modern Times
• Everyday: Love

Editors: Karin Louise, Cheryle Yin Lo

Western Sydney University

Street Musicians is the 7th anthology of Romanian/Australian poetry and prose initiated by poet and editor Mihaela Cristescu in partnership with NEW Writers’ Group Inc.

 An anthology of poetry and short prose Street Musicians is published by Mihaela Cristescu in Romania and launched in Romania and Australia in March 2023.

From troubadours to puppeteers, from one-man bands to classic performers, or from jazz composers to storytellers, streets deliver us reality at metaphorical junctions of existence.

My contribution is a short piece called "Played List." Inspired by The Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen, this is a list of music recommended to me by those I love, or loved, or admired. 

Launched at Hambledon Cottage, Parramatta, March 2022.

English Editor: Sue Crawford
Illustrations: Luminita Lou Serbanescu Art
NWG President: Carol Amos  

Stay A While is the 6th anthology of Romanian/Australian poetry and prose initiated by poet and editor Mihaela Cristescu in partnership with NEW Writers’ Group Inc.

All pieces in the anthology speak to the theme of Love. "The triumph of love, hope and wishes accomplished under the sign of mystique and elegance - an experience and an achievement in the same time, a collection of texts about our time of happiness and joy."

My short story included in the anthology, "Move On" explores the practicality of love - within the bounds of time, place and real-estate - and is inspired by Proust's observation:

“Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade."

Launched at The State Library of New South Wales, March 2022.

English Editor: Sue Crawford
Illustrations: Luminita Lou Serbanescu Art
NWG President: Carol Amos  

Expression 2 is a part of the Writing Parramatta project managed, curated and edited by the New Writers Group.

The project centred on Parramatta and its people:  personal memories, a story unfolding right now, or fiction that references the Parramatta area.

For me, having spent so much time in Parramatta as a burgeoning centre of creativity over a decade of great transformation - no greater topic matches the city than the notion that love transforms - though creation and destruction. Just as the city becomes the witness to the love stories, as they are born, still born or as they die. In "Going to Ground" Joseph Conrad inspires a reckoning between a poet and an historian with the epitaph ‘Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.’ Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness 

Writing Parramatta 2021 was supported by a City of Parramatta Council Creative Economy Grant. As part of the project, NWG published Parramatta stories, poems and images digitally via nwg-inc.com.

In response to impacts of COVID-19 on the lives of locals, and on creative practitioners across Australia, Nillumbik Shire Council called for writers to provide short texts, reflecting on their pandemic experiences. 

At the time, and for months afterwards, walking was one of the few sanctioned recreational activities, and in that way a reminder of 'normality' and the importance of community. 

Twenty texts were selected to be stencilled onto public walkways for the Written in the Time of COVID-19 project. There, on the pavements of locations throughout Nillumbik, they could intersect with the precious pleasure of the daily stroll, jog or cycle. 

Four of my poems are published in this anthology, two of them were made into street art stencils:

• The Last Time I Saw You
• Keep It Simple
• This Street
• Keep Moving

Herding Kites, an anthology celebrating 10 years of the National Young Writers Festival.  

Edited by Michael Williams

 Bringing a semblance of order to a decade of creative chaos, Herding Kites showcases the talents of everyone from unheralded underground mavericks and hot up-and-comers to internationally acclaimed wordsmiths - all writing for the love of the craft and not just the salvation of a cheque.

Anthologised by Michael Williams, the book includes short stories, poetry, plays, scripts, memoirs, comics, artworks and more. The diversity reflects the ethos of the festival itself by putting writers from different backgrounds and levels of experience on equal footing.

My short play "The Comfort of Old Slippers" was performed at NYWF and at PACT in 2003.