The long-running writing group, Yass Valley Writers, recently released a fifth collection of their work. Voices from the Valley: An Anthology of Stories and Verse (Volume V) was edited by Jane Baker, with cover illustration by Katherine Cameron.

Based in the town of Yass, New South Wales, the group provides a welcoming and friendly forum for writers from the surrounding area.

Every few years, an anthology is published which showcases the prose and poetry of Yass Valley Writers’ members. The 2022 collection features 17 writers and includes short stories, essays, memoirs, haiku, tanka and longer forms of poetry.

Nola Bindon’s short stories capture the essence of everyday life. Her writing brings each scene into sharp focus, drawing us into the lives of others. These are the opening lines from Verandah Dreaming:

He’s there most days, rain or shine, the big man seated in his really big chair on his really tiny verandah. There’s no garden but a few stunted plants fringe the concrete where his chair sits. There’s another chair, but it’s always empty, waiting.

Alex Webbe’s poetry invites the reader to share the moment that inspired her to write . . .

The Pine

Silvered shards of white
Glint in morning frost
As I crunch on grasses hidden
Under the glassy overlay of ice
I am drawn to the lacy leaf shapes
On the pine tree’s leaning boughs
Knowing that their crystal droplets
Soon will melt in the warming air.

Colin Campbell writes short stories and poetry. In his short story, I Wanna See My Mum, a woman is pleading for permission to see her Mum, who is dying from COVID:

And she’s on her knees now, bringing up great deep painful sobs, her knuckles white on the bars of the gate. Her hair is lank with sweat and there are dark patches on her track-top. Her face, when she raises it to look at the nurse, is a ruin, red and running with tears and mucus. ‘Please?’

Glenys Ferguson writes beautiful haiku, tanka and haibun that combine brevity with depth of feeling:

quiet evening
the metronome
within

without thinking
she pours two cups of tea
one with sugar
one without
old habits too die hard

washing dishes
the circular motion
of remembering

Please drop me an email from my Contact page if you would like to obtain a copy of the 2022 anthology from Yass Valley Writers.