The night sky from the surface of Mars

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On ‘Hotel Sorrento’, by Hannie Rayson

GR Online HANNIE RAYSON'S WELL-loved Hotel Sorrento, which premiered onstage in 1991 and was made into a feature film in 1995, explored some immediately identifiable terrain...

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Emily presents

FictionMEG IS ALLOWED onto the tarmac to watch the unloading. It is a vast, empty space at this time of night, except for the...

FictionIt was always busy there in Palermo. During a snow shower I’d sit in the cafés, small corner net connections. Sometimes the weather was a little heavy – I’d kick my boots clean of ice at the entrance, umbrella heavy with sleet. The man you paid to use the internet would be singing in Farsi; a woman would speak in hushed tones in the cubicle. Sometimes not so hushed. Talking to her family on the other side of the world. Where maybe it was snowing, too. And together they could listen to each other. Together in the snow they could talk.

My mother disliked the sea

PoetryMy mother disliked the sea after we arrived in Australia. She would say, ‘Four weeks on a ship. Waves. Waves. That’s all it was... And the horizon never...