Normal Milk

McKenzie, Vahri (2019). Normal milk. In M. Granger et al. (eds.), Storyfire: Winning stories from the Stuart Hadow Prize: 2005-2018 (pp. 187-192). Swanbourne, Australia: The Fellowship of Australian Writers WA.

The work explores the gap between language and communication through innovative use of artificial language, techniques of compression and omission, and the theme of intergenerational miscommunication. Narrated from the perspective of a single mother who struggles to understand her adolescent daughter, the user of the invented language, where this is read both as a literal artificial language and as a representation of miscommunication. Reviewed by Susan Midalia in Westerly Magazine. Earlier versions of the work Commended in Peter Cowan Writers Centre 600-word Short Story Competition 2014, and published in The Geographe School Chapbook (2016).