The eclectic, strange, beguiling collection of short stories COMMON PLACES (UQP 2026) won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards. Author Gillian Hagenus has a history of involvement with short story festivals, editing, and publication in various literary journals but this is her debut collection.
COMMON PLACES is exactly what it says on the tin: stories about common places (usually small towns, backyards, houses or other living spaces) but all with disturbing or unusual twists: dangerous bushland always watching, neighbours who know too much, mysterious bushfire smoke, intimate memories, close calls, a touch of magical realism, dream fantasies.
As with most short story collections, readers will have their favourites. Mine are the enigmatic PROJECT MERCURY, the creepy BETWEEN HERE AND ANTARCTICA, the haunting and haunted OH, the unforgettable liminal nuance of IMPERMANENCE, the dark mystery of THE MAN UPSTAIRS, THE YEAR OF THE BIRDS, and the wry and humorous and unnerving A SERIOUS FENCE.
The stories are marked by great dialogue, a keen eye for detail, black humour, creative imagination and a remarkably gothic noir take on familiar landscapes that become unknown and unsettling. Every story begins in a familiar or common place, but diverts either subtly or in some instances, quite abruptly, to a different space altogether.