Cassie McCullagh

I think you'll get it in the middle ones because in some ways we're seeing a collection that wasn't made for us.

Yes, the journalist Brett Evans, no relation, as I said last time he was on the show.

Michael Delaney, essayist, who has a piece in the latest Griffith Review.

And Rowena Gonsalves, who is herself a short story writer.

Now on the bookshelf, time to meet today's guests.

Cassie may make it back in time for the rest of the discussion, but we'll just have to begin without her.

So here we are with a stack of short story collections in front of us.

And let's say hello to all the guests who are all old hands on the bookshelf.

Writer Oana Gonsalves, essayist Michael Delaney and journalist Brett Evans.

Hello to all of you.

Now, Rowena, you've written your own collection of short stories, The Permanent Resident, which has won a number of awards.

What does a short story offer to you as a writer?

Now, Brett Evans, where do you begin when you judge a short story?

Michael Delaney, how does that work for you?

The first, the opening has to grab you.

Because you're an essayist, so you are interested in the shorter form then.

Well, that's certainly an issue with one of the collections that you've read for us today, and that's John Edgar Wideman's American History.

And so we'll get to each of these collections soon.

But before we get to these short stories, Brett, the last time you were on the bookshelf, the crime writer Peter Temple had just died.

Now, this time, it's another Australian crime writer, Peter Corris, and he died just over a week ago.