Stories from the Heart, edited by Johanna Skinner and Jane Connolly

Stories from the Heart: Penning the Pandemic

What do paper bag princesses, frangipani, backyard marathons and candles at dawn have in common? Or alternatively what connects grey nomads, funeral directors, speech pathologists, archbishops, teenage students, and nursing home residents? Or even more confounding, how do shopping lists, school assemblies, jigsaws and prayer intersect? The answers to these curious questions lie in the voices of those who open their hearts to share their stories in this unique collection. Unique, because of the circumstances in which the stories were collected, unique because of the tone and mode of individual responses, unique because each has been penned in a pandemic.

This collection of stories comes from the heart of Queensland – its people – and it captures the uncertainty, anxiety, resilience, courage, and humour which hallmark our response to cataclysmic events. It provides a unique record of the impacts, both direct and indirect, positive and negative, that COVID-19 has had on everyday lives.

You can read Stories from the Heart, edited by Dr Johanna Skinner and Jane Connolly for free here.

Johanna is a general practitioner, marathon runner and writer. She has recently completed her first novel which is currently being edited and she is working on the first draft of her second novel. She has been short- and long-listed for flash fiction competitions and won the QWC Right Left Write Competition in April 2020.

Jane is recently retired from a long career working with words and books. She has at various times worked as a teacher, teacher librarian, consultant to school libraries, and most recently as a corporate communicator. She was at one time the Queensland judge of the CBCA Awards and indulged her passion for books by joining the staff at Riverbend Books Bulimba for a brief but memorable period. She has been a critical friend to published authors.

Shared with kind permission from Johanna and Jane. Follow Pandemic Stories on Instagram here.