Spineless Wonders launches live readings with professional actors

Independent Australian publisher Spineless Wonders has launched a new series of events featuring live readings of short fiction by professional actors.

‘Little Fictions’ will be held once a month at Sydney’s Knox Street Bar and will feature stories from Spineless Wonders authors performed by emerging and experienced actors from theatre and television, including Tim McGarry (Monkee Baa Theatre), Lauren Neill (‘Gods of Wheat Street’) and Luke Carson (‘Rake’, ‘Home and Away’).  

Spineless Wonders publisher Bronwyn Mehan told Books+Publishing that the events were ‘born out of an ardent desire to bring people who love literature together and to give voice to contemporary short Australian fiction’, and follow a similar series of quarterly events in Adelaide.

While Mehan said that ‘many authors read their work well’, ‘what actors bring to these nights of live readings is a level of voice and performative skills which writers may not necessarily have. And because we give the actors the stories, discuss them and then let them go away and rehearse, the actors also bring their own interpretation of the pieces to the performance.’

‘Little Fictions’ held its first event on 3 November and ‘packed the place out with around 60 people’, said Mehan. The publisher charges a $5 cover fee with all proceeds going to the artists. The live readings are also recorded for radio broadcast and retail sales as MP3s.  

To find out more about the Sydney events, click here.