Firelight

Judges' comments

Firelight is a short fiction collection that spans a range of speculative, strange and surrealist genres and swims between them all with ease. Most of the stories are short, one is novella-length, and John Morrissey writes all of them with absolute skill. He has delivered an incredible collection of delightfully weird worlds within this book.

This beautifully crafted set of stories is at once an outstanding example both of short-form writing and of speculative writing, including Indigenous futurisms, applying an Aboriginal lens that is informed by ancient culture and intergenerational experiences of injustice to vivid imaginings of what could be. Sometimes cunning and ironic, other times a little twisted, but always deft and clever, this quirky exploration of Australian/alien-ness is unlike any other writing out there and leaves the reader wanting more.