Author Description

Between desert and coast, stories dwell in a place called the Belt¿. Eleven writers drive into the heart of Western Australia's wheat and salt country for a retreat. They stay at the once-majestic Grande Olde Dumbleyung Inn and share dawn visits to the graveyard, long-table dinners, a rattly tour bus, quandong coffee, and an intimate run-down bathroom. At the pub one evening, a biodynamic farmer tells them if they want to find the stories, they need to follow the salt. The town's vast hyper-saline lake features in this collection of short fiction, as do haunted landscapes, missing people, tourists, a bar manager, and ghosts. Set in the past, present and future, the stories pay homage to a lake and a land that is calling out for love. They find the unreal in the commonplace, beauty in the shadows, and humour in the dark. This collection of new Australian gothic fiction will leach into your psyche and score your heart, leaving traces of a place that refuses to rest in peace.