In This Desert, There Were Seeds

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Endangered tigers connecting telepathically through time-travel; a guard’s ethical dilemma at a history museum; a slaughterhouse worker’s memories of his dead wife; a monochrome town upended by a wild watermelon…

In This Desert, There Were Seeds is an intimate collection of past and future dreams, featuring exciting new and established literary voices from Western Australia and Singapore. From our shifting sense of community and identity, to our frustrations with existing political, social and economic structures—this anthology transcends boundaries and captures the persistence of ordinary lives in deserts literal and metaphorical.


 

In This Desert, There Were Seeds

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Reviews

“Like a figure stepping bravely into the light, the stories in this collection capture a moment in time already in its twilight: unsure of what lies next for all of us, and yet altogether certain in the strength of our stories and the hard truths our writers continue to share.” —Daryl Yam, author of Kappa Quartet

“These tales unfold in the wake of disaster, personal and planetary: a cancer diagnosis, colonial pillage and displacement, a divorce, complete ecological collapse. Their characters are atomised, scattered across space and time, cut off from the communities that would nourish them. Yet these are not tales of despair. These are tales of survival.” —Ng Yi-Sheng, poet, playwright, fictionist, researcher and LGBT+ activist


“A beautiful and poignant collection of short stories that articulate with accuracy, compassion and empathy the anxieties of a generation in early 21st century. But beyond being at once a mirror and voice of a generation, these stories are engaging for their ingenious use of history and varying cultural and spiritual practices as a backdrop and device to drive the various plots forward. Above all however, that which strikes one most are the common themes in the stories. While no doubt some stories are distinctive in their settings, after a while, one forgets that this story is from Australia or that other story is from Singapore. That which is left behind is the sense that there are no boundaries when it comes to emotions, hopes, aspirations, dreams and tragedy. A truly universal collection that is a must read if you want to understand the minds and hearts of the generation that will see us through the 21st century.” —Phan Ming Yen, author and director of Global Cultural Alliance

EDITORS

Jon Gresham, Elizabeth Tan

CONTRIBUTORS

Aishah Alhadad, Alicia Tuckerman, Arin Alycia Fong, Chen Cuifen, Cyril Wong, David Whish-Wilson, Diana Rahim, Heather Teo, Jay Anderson, Jinny Koh, Laurie Steed, Leslie Thiele, Marylyn Tan, Rachelle Rechichi, Rajkumar Thiagaras, Rashida Murphy, Choo Ruizhi, Sabrina Dudgeon-Swift, Tinashe Jakwa, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes