An anthology of Australian Speculative Fiction. BAGGAGE presents some of the finest new work by Aussie writers, including Jack Dann, Monica Carroll, K. J. Bishop, Kaaron Warren, Yaritji Green, Janeen Webb, Lucy Sussex, Jennifer Fallon, Maxine McArthur, Tessa Kum, Laura E. Goodin, Deborah Biancotti, and Simon Brown.

Ghosts trail after us. They are our fears and the shape of our hates. We bring them into our lives and into our homes. Poltergeists and the spirits of drowned girls; malicious presences and portents; cat vampires and roaming bushrangers. These ghosts haunt Canberra - these ghosts can kill. Lil is elegant and troubled. Ann has just retired and is about to divorce: she sees vistas of nothingness in her future. Mabel is wedded to her garden. Kat is fifteen and has tried hard to drop out of life. It takes these four women, one cup of tea at a time, to face the ghosts and other supernatural beings in Canberra. But can they face down the darkness and keep Canberra's streets clear of danger?

Humankind is in danger. The Year of the Fruitcake tells of the Earth-based life of a mostly-mindwiped alien anthropologist inhabiting a human perimenopausal body instead of her own more rational body with its capacity to change gender. This alien has definitely shaken a great intergalactic empire by sitting in cafés with her new best friends. Chocolate may or may not have played a part. Will humanity survive? Polack describes her novel as, "Bleak. It's political. It's angry. It's also sarcastic, cynical and funny."

Renowned artist Grania, famed as a painter of light, arrives in a sleek space ship from Lost Earth, ready to embrace New Ceres and its New Enlightenment in its entirety - its 18th century set up, its coffee houses, its gossipy salons, and its obsession with a low-level approach to tech . . . But is she really ready for its cutthroat society, its strange food issues or for Livia? Livia who toys with lives on a whim, and will stop at nothing to realize her dream society. When Grania marries Dal and sets up her own political salons the stage is set for a battle of wills and poisonous chaos ensues on a brand new world where everything old is new again.

Mountains of the Mind - A Polack Retrospective contains never before published early work from Dr Polack, prizewinning published pieces and brand new short stories written especially for this book. It will surprise and delight fans of her previous 6 novels and non fiction publications, and introduce new readers to the complexities and subtleties of Dr Polack's short stories. Traversing the mountains and valleys, and following the twists and turns in time and place you will return again and again to the stories in this book. The paths to the top of these mountains are many, and the views from there are spectacular.