Steve Hawe
Published Works
My Time of Eagles
Remote Qld, circa ’70’s when wool is gold and wedgies are on the nose. Roxy Bolton, feisty defender of the wildlife enlists her father’s help to create an on-property sanctuary. At Savanna State High, she befriends Tina after a racial slur, and invites her home for a camp-over at the sanctuary. When a solitary, wizened eagle sets vigil nearby, Tina tells of ‘the watchers’, mysterious dreamtime guardian-spirits.
At the local wool-shed dance, Roxy confronts a grazier over a drunken boast of his tally of slaughtered eagles. A strange massing of eagles soon after, and their eventual disappearance leads Roxy to her new friend’s door, desperate for answers. But Tina’s mother remains tight-lipped. For Irene, indigenous elder; keeper of wedged-tail lore, Mother Nature’s curveball invokes disturbing echoes from the dreamtime.
There’s a limited number of copies left: you can buy them directly from me for AU$42 (includes postage within Australia).
This button will open a new window where you can buy My Time of Eagles using PayPal.
Flight of the Owl
My winning entry in the 2021 Mary River Short Story Contest, grew from scribbled notes penned whilst setting vigil beside my mother’s deathbed. From the heart, it touches on the guilt of an often wayward son, but also the kindness of strangers, and laughter in the face of impending grief. ‘Flight of the Owl’ was longlisted in the 2021 Bridport Prize.
Love Dust
‘Love Dust’, a fast moving tragedy about outback truckies caught in a love-triangle, was entered in the annual Winton Short Story Competition. Amongst the winning entries, it was published in Outback Anthology of Short Stories volume 5 (2020)
Sally’s Snoozy Thursday
A fun speculative poke in the eye for pollies and priests. Sally pulls no punches! Amongst the winning entries, it was published in Outback Anthology of Short Stories volume 7 (2022)
frankie76@minkiedowns.com
– found in Bush Journal. A non-fiction story from Steve’s younger days.
Kildare Selfies
A fiction short story that may be closer to the truth than you think.
- MORE OF STEVE’S PUBLISHED CREDITS.
- ‘frankie@minkiedowns.com’, CNF short ‘Bush Journal’, June 2023
- ‘Kildare Selfies’, fiction short ‘Outback Anthology 8.’
- ‘The Sen᷉orita and the Minstrel, a bush meta-phair’, CNF short ‘Outback Anthology 9’
- ‘When Bee Comes Home’, CNF flash fiction ‘Witcraft Lit Mag’ (online)
- ‘When the Devil Takes the Cloak’ CNF ‘Text Power Telling’ (online lit mag)
- ‘Outback Paradise’, nonfiction, longlisted Qld Geographic Society’s 2024 themed short story prize.
- ‘A Funny Thing (about Old Man Drought)’ – shortlisted for 2024 Masters Review Chapbook prize, current finalist for 2025 Eyelands Book Awards (chapbook)
- ‘Beauty’ : 150W entry published in Outback Anthology 10.
- ‘Last Train to Menindee’, an unpublished memoir was runner up in the 2025 Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship prize.
- 2025Hi, it’s that time of year again, and I don’t mean Christmas. It’s … ‘bout-time-I-blogged-again-time’, just in case my death’s exaggerated. So, lots happened thisContinue reading “2025”
- MOLD and LIMBOHi. How are you? Over Chrissie now we’re blanketed in a red sea of tinsel and piped carols? (got the earplugs out for Bing’s WhiteContinue reading “MOLD and LIMBO”
- twenty twenty four.Hi. Was gonna say it. Then wasn’t, then was, then… Oh, f’gawd’s sake, the sun burns me out’a the swag nowadays anyhow, hours after newContinue reading “twenty twenty four.”
Image Credit: Håkan Ludwigson‘s ‘Balls and Bulldust’
Steve Hawe
After a lifetime in the bush, Steve Hawe has worn many hats. Lately ringer, horse-breaker, farrier and fencer, and most importantly father of five (forever!), he and his partner now own grazing country west of Longreach, Qld. It was here at ‘Spring Plains’, amidst the splendour of the arid lands that he was inspired to write. To his great delight, he came to realise an authors’ hat can be any and all of the above!
At 15, on the outskirts of Young, central western NSW, a fresh-faced, skinny (hatless!) kid stopped for a moment to listen for the school hooter. It was 9 am first day back in ‘73. On his knees at ‘Wordsworth’s Strawberries’ he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. In his mind was the classroom clamour of book-bags on mahogany desks, and a vision of the motor bike he was saving for. Brimming with the opti-cence of youth, he was blissfully unaware of the journey enjoined. Or that his stories would one day be spiced and enriched by the laughter and tears, ‘high-fives’ and train-wrecks of five decades of hard slog in the bush. From a passing parade of workmates, bosses, employees, family and friends; he would amass a precious well of snapshots of personas, wisdoms and events.
He would also learn that hats are earned, and should never be thrown away!
Steve Hawe 