Downstairs at Belvoir Volume 2

This Heaven
by Nakkiah Lui

Sissy Gordon’s father died in custody at Mount Druitt Police Station. The cops got a fine, Sissy’s family got $9,000 and no one is allowed to speak about it. Sissy is about to become a lawyer but tonight lawyers and the law are beside the point. Tonight the night is dirty and heavy, and the moon is swollen and bright. Everyone knows that on nights like this things happen.


Is This Thing On?
by Zoë Coombs Marr

Brianna is a stand-up comedian. This is her life: an unfortunate name, a boring childhood, slow self-realisation, a late coming-out. Drink. Standing in smelly rooms with strange men who all tell the same jokes. Vomiting on stage. Carrying on anyway. Is there a reason? Probably not — just a way of coping with your own mediocrity. Whose life is this anyway?


Cinderella
by Matthew Whittet

This Cinderella is not about princes and princesses. It’s about a single woman in her early 40s trying to go on a date, and a single guy who has an unreasonable fear of not being heard over loud music in bars. There may not be any ugly sisters, but there’s the occasional mysterious animal. There’s midnight. There’s a shoe. There’s dancing. And there’s beautiful transformation.

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