writer of short fiction and poetry
LIMITS OF FORGETTING
18 new and selected short stories
What happens when we can’t forget, when we continue to struggle with the past, when the past remains at the forefront of who we are?
"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories
are the thing we need most in the world."
- Philip Pullman
Arna writes for both adults and children. Her short fiction and poetry has been published in Westerly 69.1, Eucalypt: Tanka Journal, Under the Same Moon: Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology, Poetry for the Planet, Verity La, Meniscus Literary Journal, the Forty South Short Story Anthology, Travel and Time (Spineless Wonders), FourW: New Writing, ZineWest, Verandah, and Islet, and other works have been performed at Summer Shorts and Little Fictions. In March 2024 she released her debut collection of new and selected short stories, Limits of Forgetting.
Her non-fiction has been published both in print and online, and stories for children have appeared in The School Magazine, on Kids' Book Review, and in several anthologies. She won the ZineWest 2020 Prize and 2nd prize in the 2019 Peter Cowan Short Story Award and has been a finalist in the 2018 Tasmanian Writers Prize, the Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award and the NWF/joanne burns Microlit Award.
My Story
I grew up living in different hotels around Australia with my Polish-Australian hotel manager parents.
After dancing on stage and TV with a kids' dance troupe, I trained at the Sydney Acting School and worked as an actor, and in many other jobs, before university study as a mature age student. I have a BA in Literary Studies and Journalism, a GradDip in Adult Literacy Teaching and an MA in Education and I taught adult literacy and writing skills at TAFE for over ten years.
Although I write for both adults and children, my current focus is on short form writing : flash fiction, microlit, short stories, and poetry.
Published
Works
Meniscus 7.1 (AAWP online literary journal)
Eucalypt: a Tanka Journal, Issue 34, 2023
Story Cities - A City Guide for the Imagination - Arachne Press, UK
PUBLISHED SHORT FICTION
Street Lullaby
The Middle of Nowhere
This is your Captain
Meeting Magda
Skin & Bone
The Limits of Forgetting
How to go with the flow
The Elephant in the Room
The Brough of Birsay
Here we are
Who do you think you are?
Lincoln’s Rock
Snap
Life Support
Separacja
Central Station 7.03
Room 301
Driss and Deidre
Innocence is Bliss
CHILDREN’S FICTION
I am Here
The Little Rainbow, Scully & Nana Mai
The Most Beautiful Thing in the World
Firestorm
Don’t Worry, Brian
NON-FICTION/ARTICLES
Flotilla Sailing
At the other end of the hour
The Poet of Oz
Living with the Wolf
This (cyclonic) Life
The Ankle-biters’ Revenge
Song of Hope
POETRY
We slept ...
the air between us
Covid Triplet
Haiku sequence
Murray River Tanka
Tunnel Vision, The Elements of Focus and
The Decision
Ambiguous Loss, Life is a Confluence, Broken
Mango Lips, Mosaic of Loss, Treatment
Catching Poems
Speaking to the Narrative
Mrs Nowak’s Chicken House
Summer Rain
Last Breath
COVID Quintet 5 Haiku
We take our comfort where we can
Mountain Funeral
Mosaic of Loss
The Northern Road
Street Musicians: Romanian/Australian Anthology of
Contemporary Prose and Poetry, 2023
Analogue Anthology, 2022
Travel Anthology, Spineless Wonders, 2022
ZineWest 20
Verity La Creative Journal
FourW 30: Pearl
Story Cities, Arachne Press, UK
Meniscus 7.1 (AAWP online literary journal)
40 South Short Story Anthology 2018
Time Anthology, Spineless Wonders, 2018
ZineWest 17
ZineWest 16
ZineWest 15
fourW 25: New Writing
ZineWest 12
ZineWest 11
Islet (online)
Verandah 19
Newswrite
Celapene Press (online)
Kids' Book Review (online)
Charms Anthology (ed Sally Odgers)
The School Magazine
Book for Fiji: Anthology (ed Sally Odgers)
Cruising Helmsman, July 2018
Warrior Women: Fighting Breast Cancer (UOW Press)
Pendulum
Link Magazine
The Weekend Australian: Review
Berkshire County’s Child
Certified Male
Luft Anthology: Poetry, Prose & Art
Under the Same Moon: Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology
Regenesis: Stories/Poems/Art, 2023
Eucalypt: a Tanka Journal, Issue 34, 2023
Parramatta Expression 2023 (Ekphrastic project),
NEW Writers’ Group Inc
Ambiguous Loss: a NEW Writers’ Group Anthology, 2023
Revista Kobo Titan
(Translated into Romanian by Mihaela Cristescu)
ZineWest 22 (print)
Poetry for the Planet Anthology, Litoria Press, 2021
Australian Children’s Poetry Website
Australian Children’s Poetry Website
ZineWest 20 (print) republished in Stay A While, Romanian
Australian Anthology, Contemporary Poetry and Prose
ZineWest PopUp Zine and Expressions (ISSN: 2653-3103)
Meniscus 7.1
ZineWest 14 (print)
As the Smoke Clears, 2014 (print)
ZineWest 13 (print)
AWARDS
Stay a While - Romanian/Australian Anthology
Contemporary Poetry & Prose, Vol 6 -
2022 launch, State Library of NSW
Flash Fiction event: Mounted ARI,
Springwood NSW
ADULT FICTION/POETRY AWARDS
2022 Newcastle Writers' Festival joanne burns microlit award (Finalist)
2022 SW #100wordsforbutterfly competition (Highly Commended)
ZineWest 20 Writers' Competition (1st place - Best Poem)
2019 Peter Cowan Short Story Award (2nd place)
2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award (Finalist)
2018 Tasmanian Writers Prize (Finalist)
2017 Newcastle Writers’ Festival joanne burns microlit award (Finalist)
2015 FAW National Literary Awards, Angelo B. Natoli Short Story Award (Highly Commended)
ZineWest 15 Writers’ Competition (Highly Commended)
ZineWest 13 Writers’ Competition (Highly Commended)
ZineWest 12 Writers’ Competition (Editor’s Choice Award)
ZineWest 11 Writers’ Competition (3rd Place - Best Prose)
2007 Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards (Highly Commended)
2004 Verandah/HarperCollins Fiction Prize (Winner)
2002 FAW National Literary Awards, The Jennifer Burbidge Short Story Award (Commended)
CHILDREN'S FICTION AWARDS
2018 Scribbles Writing Award (short-listed)
2018 Buzz Words Short Story Award (long-listed)
2016 Charlotte Duncan Award (2nd place)
2013 CBCA (NSW) Aspiring Writers Mentorship Program sponsored by Random House (Shortlisted)
2006 FAW Tasmania, Nairda Lyne Award (Commended)
2006 CBCA (NSW) Frustrated Writers’ Award (Shortlisted)
2004 CBCA (NSW) Frustrated Writers’ Award (Shortlisted)
