Womensissues Stories

This collection of contemporary short stories is concerned with how women are shaped by the events and relationships in their lives, and how those elements serve as catalysts for personal transformation - the process of becoming something else. They address the pressure of gender expectations coming from within and without, and particularly how that plays out in relationships, both familial and romantic, or when experiencing serious hardships such as mental health crises, addiction and domestic violence. They are set in Western Australia during the 2000s and 2010s.

An old women sits in the patio of her house, surrounded by grieving women. Her husband is dead. She should be sad, heartbroken. She should be crying with grief. She isn't.

This poem was inspired by the poem titled Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

What lengths would you go to help a friend? Returning for the new school year, Ruby Adam's life changes drastically after aiding a girl in her class, creating a profound bond between the two.

Volume Two picks up where Volume One left off with troubled Jazmin and her son, who is growing into young manhood. They are working to resolve their issues and move forward as mother and son. This volume also introduces three boys who try to define what it means to make it in America, comparing their parents' struggles with immigration and inequalities. Sara Johnson is a maid who gets by on her wits, attempting to forget her personal plight and failures of the past. Volume Two contains ten stories: A Life Interrupted (Part Two), Small Talk and Collard Greens, A Place for All, Friendship is a Very Delicate Thing, A Suitable Love, Mirrors, Days Turn Into Nights, Redemption Song, Uncle Jonas Visits and Sara Johnson Rises Again.

Set in the early twentieth century in the goldfields of Western Australia, Bessie is a short story about a young woman struggling to find a path for herself. She is caught between her father's strict religion, and the bent of her own heart.