HEAT 23 is an issue full of sounds – of music, speech and of noise – sounds distracting and disturbing, sweet and restorative, and always commanding. Amaryllis Gacioppo’s story ‘Victory’ follows the plight of a woman kept awake at all hours by the pounding bass from the club that has opened across the piazza from her flat. Chris Fleming’s essay ‘The Barking’ dives deep into the phenomenology of irritation, occasioned by the persistent barking of his neighbour’s dog. In Amelia Winter’s story ‘Every Day for the Rest of His Life’, the narrator has no choice but to overhear the bickering of a nearby couple, until she is drawn into conversation with them as they observe the unsettling events taking place in their line of sight.
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s poems take in the stillness and activity of the creatures in his garden. Fiona Wright throws her nose into a wattle sprig, listens to the sea, and encounters tourists and children. Coco X. Huang’s poems play with sound until they make the mouth freshly aware of the words it contains. Zhao Xingyu traces the development of his Australian English as it pulls him away from his Chinese mother tongue.
Dorothy Johnston’s essay ‘Playing the Piano with a Broken Wrist’ discovers a new and surprising interpretation of Brahms through the slow and laboured playing of her arm in a cast. Anita Harag’s story ‘I Could Be Berlin’ closely follows the hubbub of the narrator’s thoughts back and forth through time while she cooks a meal together with her companions and silently tests the possibilities inherent in every moment.
Contents
Amelia Winter Every Day for the Rest of His Life prose
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Three Poems poetry
Dorothy Johnston Playing the Piano with a Broken Wrist prose
Coco X. Huang Three Poems poetry
Amaryllis Gacioppo (trans. Walter Burgess and Marietta Morry) Victory prose
Fiona Wright Three Poems poetry
Chris Fleming The Barking prose
Zhao Xingyu 李/Language prose
Anita Harag I Could Be Berlin prose
