Likes to Measure

McKenzie, V. (2016). Likes to measure. In M. Sala and G. Osborne (eds.). Newcastle Short Story Award Anthology 2016. Newcastle, NSW: Hunter Writers Centre.

The work formally experiments with the possibilities of non-narrative prose, developing strategies that include the poetics of catalogue (listing structures). It thematically explores the possibilities and limits of measuring value in creative arts via the analogy of the protagonist cataloguing many ways to measure herself, literally, and offering ironic closure with the continual improvement of measuring tools. Written during an awarded Fellowship at Varuna Writer’s House with Tegan Bennett Daylight and shortlisted in the national Newcastle Short Story Award.