Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: furphy

  • The Furphy Anthology 2025

    The Furphy Anthology 2025

    The Furphy Anthology 2025 has certainly delivered once again with an exceptionally high standard of short story that entertains while it rubs up against the reality of life before and after the grave.

    Although this sounds somewhat maudlin, it is not, as each of the stories take a small slice of life, gently teasing out the emotions which make us all human; the love, hurt, confusion, despair and acceptance, even a turkey dinner that proves to be a guilt-ridden memory.

    Serena Moss, who was until recently ‘just a scribbler of words’, took out the top award with her exquisite The Eulogy Business which is whimsical, quirky, very relatable, funny, wry and so very honest. Have you ever wondered who writes the Eulogy’s for the recently dearly departed, that make you remember, cry and laugh in turns? Now you know.

     Charlotte Askew’s Somewhere Above the Artesian is a simple, yet heartbreaking retelling of a tragedy that could have been prevented.  Grey Nomads, a retired husband and wife who had sold everything for a life on the road: new car, new caravan and no real idea of driving anything that big. One simple mistake and disaster strikes: a man, a boy and their load of cattle!

    The final phases of a parent slowing sinking into dementia has been softly explored by Amy L Montague as she offers in the first person the thoughts of an elderly woman, wife and mother, trying to make sense of her life since her husband died in All the Moments I Still Live In which is bittersweet and elegant.

    Twelve other works are included in the 2025 Anthology that encapsulate everything from a memorable turkey dinner through to The Role of the Cloaca in Monotreme Phylogeny. Let’s face it, how can you resist such a title which evolves into a very intriguing story.

    The Furphy Anthology 2025 is an absolute treasure trove of unexpected slices of life which have captured the imagination of the writers and have now been created to entertain without boundaries.

    Dip in and enjoy!

  • The Furphy Anthology 2022

    The Furphy Anthology 2022

    Reading a collection of short stories is always interesting to see what is the underlying emotion in all of them, or are they all so very different that each one is a gem of its own, capturing in a short moment something rare and different.

    A the recently held 2022 Furphy Awards Cate Kennedy collected the award for Art and Life that tells the story of a talented, perhaps even prodigy, violinist whose career takes off on an unexpected pathway, when he realises that perhaps busking is not the way forward, but creating living statues of people going about their everyday life is: well at least it earns him some money.

    The problem was real life somehow got left behind and the world of imagination took over which made life as a ‘geek’, become very interesting indeed.  Art and Life is a somewhat quirky moment in time written with a wry sense of humour.

    The Game from Lisa Moule earned a Highly Commended and looks at the games people play when they use others talents to tread the pathway of their life, somehow managing to succeed up to a point. Set in a school and focusing on the teachers, a really interesting cameo is drawn on how we all allow such things to occur in our lives, without attempting to make changes.

    A somewhat sombre offering is Winter is for regret from Natalie Vella portraying growing old when the person you have spent your life with changes and life, no matter what becomes ever more challenging to simply try to be ‘normal’.

    Thirteen more stories have been selected for this Anthology each one focusing on a small aspect of life and interestingly, there are few that are other than driven with a deep sense of almost a sadness, hopelessness, or despair and acceptance, which is somewhat fascinating and is what could easily be considered as a reflection the world of today, or simply that it there is far more material in the world of sadness and sorrow than any other aspect of life.

    Maybe!

    The Furphy Awards:

    Everyone can write at least one good story. That was the belief of J. F. Archibald, the editor and founder of the famous nineteenth-century weekly, The Bulletin, who invited his readers to become contributors. It was this encouragement that led Joseph Furphy, working in his brother’s foundry at Shepparton, to write his novel, Such is Life, using the pseudonym of ‘Tom Collins’. The book, full of stories derived from Joseph’s experience in the Riverina and told in a voice uniquely his own, is now acknowledged to be a classic of Australian literature. In the spirit of Archibald and honouring the author of Such is Life, the Furphy Literary Award has been established to promote and extend the tradition of story telling, both factual and fictional, that is so much part of Australian life.