Publications & Monologues

Seasons is the 10th anthology of Romanian/Australian poetry and prose initiated by poet and editor Mihaela Cristescu.

My contribution is:

 I Don’t Think We Don’t Love Each Other 

Inspired by Harold Pinter's play Betrayal and reimagined at the Woolpack Hotel, Parramatta in 2022. The play's title is taken from a line said by Jerry to Emma.

To be launched at The State Library of NSW, produced by Mihaela Cristescu.

May 2026

Seasons is the 9th anthology of Romanian/Australian poetry and prose initiated by poet and editor Mihaela Cristescu in partnership with NEW Writers’ Group Inc.

My contribution is:

Frances Bechdel in the Here and Now

It is a short genealogy of familial lies, low self-esteem and misfortune that leads a woman to consider valuing her freedom over love.

Launched at State Library NSW.

March 2025

English Editor: Sue Crawford
Illustrations: Luminita Lou Serbanescu Art 

This is the second edition of Vitagraph Publishing's Written Off Literary Journal.

My contributions include:

A Small Town Proverb 

which is a portrait of trauma, and the residual role it plays in house-bound duty and in feeding online engagement.

and 

Travel Snaps

Inspired by a quote by Charles Bukowski - "In my work, as a writer, I only photograph in words, what I see." Travel Snaps is a series of "polaroids" of people and places I love and have loved in California, and one in Australia who is long lost.

it was released in October 2024, and launched when I returned from Los Angeles later in 2024 at WestWords.

ZineWest is a publication and competition for western Sydney Writers managed, compiled and published by New Writers Group.

My contribution: 

The Reason You Didn't Get a Christmas Card From Me Last Year.

ZineWest 2024 Launch was dedicated to the memory of our esteemed colleague, Trish Jean, who has a poem in this edition plus an image on the awards list. 

On Saturday 12 October NEW Writers Group Inc. launched ZineWest 2024 at a UNE Sydney Parramatta venue. Many thanks to UNE for their support of local creatives! 

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.

My contribution is as Guest Writer:

The Reluctant Lover

 Inspired by an 1898 children's story by Kenneth Grahame, called "The Reluctant Dragon."

To be Launched at State Library NSW

March 2024

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

An Anthology of western Sydney Short Stories compiled and published by WestWords.

My contribution is:

An Angel's City 

When Leslie's world falls apart - after Aiden slams the door on his way out - she decides to head to Los Angeles to reconnect with herself and to feel the Californians sun on her skin.

This piece was written in response to a piece called Splinter of Ice published in the December 2022 Open Book Magazine produced by the State Library of NSW.

This story was award best short story for Camden, and tied equal first for the Living Stories Competition.

It was released in June 2023.

This Anthology includes longer short stories (about 3000 words) from western Sydney based writers.

My contribution is:

Banding Birds

A story inspired by my time living and traveling in Canada in my 20s, where I both rediscovered songwriting, and my love of bird watching.

This is my ode to Guelph's troubadour James Gordon, my former partner Trevor Wilson and my time traveling in Nova Scotia and  Briar Island.

Launched in 2023

 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.

My contribution:

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. 

 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.

Launched at Experiment Farm Cottage, Parramatta, March 2023.

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.