Editorial

Lost Homes

CLARISSA CABELLO

Welcome to our 21st Issue of The Quarry, ‘Lost Homes’.

This year has been tough on the world, on the places people call home and for this Earth which is everyone's home. A home is a sacred place, whether real or imagined, literal or metaphorical. Regardless whether a home is bounded by mind or mortar, feeling like you have lost your home is heartbreaking. We have seen how war can destroy lives and forced displacement can sabotage culture and community.

When I think of home, I think of love. Of care and nourishment. Our stories show how home or lack thereof can build us up or destroy us. A girl asks herself if she should buy "A Train Ride or A Roast Dinner", wanting to start all over again in Sarah Petchell’s fiction. A space explorer realises that he can never return to Earth in a poem by Ben Sanday, “Lost Home.” A woman who inherits her late grandmother's house is still haunted by her “Memory”, in a short story by Isabella Griffith. “A Gardener” cherishes his garden and vows to endlessly love her in a poem by Analise Barreto. The cohort took the theme and ran with it, and as you read, I'm sure you can see how vastly inspired we all were. But there was one question that united our work. As the saying goes, "home is where the heart is," so when writing, we asked ourselves: “Where does my heart lie?”

Thank you to Dr Michelle Hamadache for being the journal’s paladin and for fostering our creativity and our individuality. Thank you, Dr Jimmy Van, for your work on this beautiful website The Quarry calls home. Thank you, Michelle Council, David Clark, and Tiana Campbell for helping organize our launch party. Thank you, David Clark, for the brilliant idea to produce a print version of this issue so we can have a keepsake. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time, energy, and artistic flare this semester. Thank you to Adrian Walthew for our lovely cover page of the "Floating House", and thank you to everyone else who submitted their artwork.

We hope these stories inspire you, make your stomach lurch and your heart pitter patter, and most importantly, remind you to nurture yourself, cherish your home, protect our Earth, and be kind to others.

Future Leaders Writing Prize Winners

Congratulations to our 2024 Future Leaders Writing Prize winners.

In first place, Martha David Jetis with ‘an unclogged drain (and other relentless atrocities)’

In second place, Joy Campbell with ‘The Myth’

In third place, Jessica Johnson-Huynh with ‘The Space Between Strangers’

Thanks to the Future Leaders Initiative and our judges for this year, Associate Professor Stephanie Russo and Dr James Mackenzie.

Table of Contents

Prose

Poetry

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Goldfish
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Goldfish

What happens after the hero slays the dragon? They get a title that magically transforms into a poorly paid job, a marginally worse apartment, and a way to convince themselves that this is fine, actually. Like a goldfish. Unfortunately, I was not a very good hero. But I was an exceptional goldfish.

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The Longest Way Home
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The Longest Way Home

The noise was incredible as all three officers stood in the trench in the cool morning. Five more minutes and the big guns would stop and it would be their time. Their section of the line was divided in three – Mayhew in the middle with Henry and Percy on each side.

Henry extended his hand. “Good luck, chaps, let’s get this business done with.”

The three shook hands. The fear was still strong in Mayhew’s eyes, but he appeared to be holding it together in front of his men, thank god.

Henry walked down the line as his men turned to him and nodded. The bombardment had stopped. A shout went along the line. “Fix bayonets!”

Henry turned to face the parapet next to the ladder. He checked his wristwatch, then glanced down to Mayhew, and Percy beyond. He nodded and blew his whistle.

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