In 2013 I moved to Canberra and this opened up some new books. Nigel Featherstone is a local writer (well, just up the road in Goulburn) who has three novellas out and the latest, The Beach Volcano, is a cracker. The novella seems to be enjoying a resurgence right now with Seizure and Griffith Review all giving it new life. Featherstone’s latest follows the return of a Nick Cave-esque black sheep to a wealthy Sydney family in a story that gently twists readers into a different place by the conclusion.

The other recent ACT book I picked up is The Grapple Annual #1. It’s a date-based anthology so pieces are given dates in the year with some relevance to the stories. Like all great anthologies it’s a dippable book on the bedside for when you need a story to divert. I particularly enjoyed Irma Gold’s ‘Travelling Left’ that deftly contrasts a crumbling relationship with a celebration.