Yellow Shelf Podcast

Beam of Light: Stories, author John Kinsella

Johanna Fink, Host of Yellow Shelf

Beam of Light, is a haunting collection of stories. 

The stories chart the lives of characters who are flawed in some way. 

Including ... 

A man is disturbed by the sight of a familiar dining table and chairs atop an impending bonfire of bulldozed trees, a girl finds a fox skeleton and feels compelled to protect its spirit by dispersing its bones over the valley, a couple are invited to dinner by Christians new to town –an occasion that quickly turns heavy and strange, two men awkwardly meet again when their daughters attend the same ballet class, and a man and woman struggle to balance the threats of addiction and poverty with the joys and hopes of a new baby. 

Stories range in location from Ireland to Germany to Greece to the Australian countryside – threatened by catastrophic heat, land clearing, housing estates and strip malls – and Kinsella’s characters, so often on the edge, sear the consciousness. 

Author John Kinsella lives in Western Australian wheatbelt and has also lived in USA, UK, Ireland and other zones. 

His other recent publications include the poetry volumes The Argonautica Inlandica (Vagabond, 2023) and Spirals: Collected Poems Volume Three (2014-2023) (UWAP 2024). Previous story collections include the awards-listed Pushing Back (Transit Lounge 2021) and Old Growth (Transit Lounge, 2017). His verse novel Cellnight was published by Transit Lounge in 2023. 

To connect with John, and Bean of Light: Stories ... 
transitlounge.com.au/shop/beam-of-light-stories/