Peace Body Pain Body

Jarad Bruinstroop, Island

'Before I began, I knew that peace would be an impossible subject. Even more abstract than pain and twice and ineffable. I’m speaking here of personal peace.

The pain is a car alarm wailing all day and night outside my window. Shut up, I am trying to work. Shut up, I am trying to be happy. Shut up, I am trying not to be in pain.'

Endlings

Harriet Riley, Island, 2016

'It’s easy to empathise with an endling when you’re single. I’ve thought a lot about how that parrot must have felt, on the night that it died, curled up in the cool loam, drifting off to sleep. He must have been confused at still being alone, but he would have assumed, as we all do deep in our primitive hindbrains, that his mate would arrive tomorrow.'

The Funeral [Farewell Kenny-G]

W<J>P Newnham, Island

Older now with greying hair, we were heavier and slower, looking more than ever like defendants awaiting the dock. We chatted quietly amongst ourselves as we waited for the ceremony.

Music was piped into the chapel as they played Kenny’s favourite: Tupac, Do for Love.

A Waving Forest

Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn, Island

How often do we think of seaweed’s critical role in the ecosystem? How much do we know about the disappearance of underwater forests? Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn asks us to think about the deforestation that happens offshore.

In the summer leading into 2016 – which would become the equal hottest year ever recorded by NASA – experts estimate around 95% of original kelp forests disappeared from the east coast of Tasmania. Cayne Layton, a researcher at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and a vocal advocate for wild kelp forests, says, 'If we’d lost 95% of our forest on land, there’d be public outrage, there’d be riots in the street. Unfortunately, it’s under the water and it’s somewhat out of sight, out of mind.'

(Note: This essay is part of Island’s compelling and convicting Australian Nature Writing Project series.)

A Questionable Survey of Suburban Eucalypts

Uthpala Gunethilake, Island

Uthpala Gunethilake begins to reconsider her first impressions of Australia, one tree at a time.

I’ve lived in Australia twenty years and never before been antsy about not being able to call a gum tree by its name. I haven’t always found Australian flora so beguiling. My mother and I once took the train from Sydney to Melbourne and nearly died of boredom. Accustomed to the glowing green of tropical trees, as though lit from within, we found the bush through country Victoria and New South Wales utterly dull. I’ve adjusted my view now. It takes time.

A Year Without Mirrors

Sarah Klenbort, Island

'Come on,' I said. 'Let’s go.'

And we went. My carpenter husband and I bought a camper trailer, rented out our unit, left our jobs and took the kids out of school.

The Enduring Hero of Matilda is Bruce Bogtrotter

Sam van Zweden, Island, Issue 160

Sam van Zweden talks about Roald Dahl’s Matilda in relation to a corpus of children’s literature aimed at discouraging greed and teaching restraint.

I’m coming to realise Bruce was the icon we didn’t know we had, who showed us the power of appetite and body autonomy by eating a whole, heavy, gooey chocolate cake, made with real butter and real cream.

Hospitality

Nicole Melanson, Island, Issue 162

Customers don’t care about your stellar reputation if their food is late or cold, or their order gets mixed up. So what if someone smashed your heart into a million tiny pieces? South end of the bar needs a vodka tonic and a frozen margarita stat. While my father was dying, the entire world was busy baking bread. Ovens everywhere, full of carby comfort. Challah knots. Cinnamon scrolls. Enough fucking sourdough to sink a thousand ships.

(Note: this piece was shortlisted for Island’s 2021 Nonfiction Prize.)