Radio National Fictions is the ABC's place for creative audio fiction from Australia's best writers and emerging creators. We deal in the hilarious, the gritty and sometimes the dystopian. Think of it as movies for your ears.
In this episode of Untrue Romance, we're looking back at past loves. Potentially tricky, sometimes awkward, but if you don’t look back, you’ll never go forward, or that’s what they say.
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? That thrill of a new crush… that delicious moment where we don’t know which way it might go for us.
An audio rom-com for those of us who believe that love can happen anywhere, at any time.
We look back at what got us through the lockdown and we take a glimpse at that first week of the pandemic when it's fairly safe to say, everyone felt a bit nuts.
COVID-19 stories from those who endured the lockdown alone and those who were never left alone.
Either having nowhere to isolate or a job that requires you to be in thick of things. Corona Tales explores stories from those who couldn't just bunker down during the pandemic.
COVID-19 stories of our most intimate relationships, the reimagining we're all doing around them and a gentle reminder, that the world has been here before.
Here at Fictions, we're fans of this song too, so we decided to reach out to writers Paul Daley and Van Badham to give us their take on the story of Joe, Dan and their family.
With travel difficult and gathering in big groups discouraged, Christmas will likely be a little strange this year so Fictions is presenting a series of letters written to things that will be missed most during the upcoming festive season.
Remember when your phone wasn’t with you 24/7? When you used it to make actual calls? Or you sat there, looking at it, waiting desperately for it to ring? Fictions is going back in time, with two stories about the telephone, family, and real connection.
Fictions presents two short stories of imperfect women — women saying the wrong things, doing the wrong things, and certainly not fitting into any sort of "good girl" mold.
A country pub, a regional hospital and a courtroom. Fictions presents three short thrillers set in regional Australia, very late at night.
For a young Indigenous mother, an ugly incident at a football game has meant time in jail and a life-time ban from her son's footy matches. Now she wants the ban lifted.
The true story of two actors arrested on a busy Melbourne street loading prop guns into the boot of their car. Was this an act of sheer stupidity or were they planning something more sinister?
People visit lost property offices in hope of finding missing precious items, often overwhelmed with joy when these things miraculously show up. The Vault is the story of a woman chasing that feeling.
They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, this rings a little too true in this competitive mother daughter comedy.
Two short stories that explore the way animals reflect what's going on in our heads and in our worlds. And it's not always cute and fluffy.
The chronicles are seven short works of audio fiction written by top North American playwrights, and they capture the spirit of our distanced, disorienting and deranged times — with wonderfully weird results. You can listen to PlayME and the Quarantine Chronicles on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Two young lawyers return to the town where they grew up to surf a wave of ice addiction, defending a generation of hopeless junkies from the law and from themselves. But ice doesn't only tempt the weak and the poor...
In Sate, a water conference turns nasty when its Indigenous participants demand justice.
A story of poetry slams, hipster beer and the wild chase to bring a slam poet to justice — poetic justice, that is.
The death of a dog has terrible consequences. When the 'mad rooter' is slaughtered, a young girl takes charge...
A desperate man borrows money from a bikie gang, with terrifying consequences. The bikies force him to make 'one' delivery for them — but will he every really be free?
Cate Kennedy's gripping story of a fly fisher who meets a barmaid in the mountains. He doesn't realise at first, but the two of them share a sinister secret.
Fictions presents a previously unpublished story by the late, great Australian crime writer, Peter Temple.
On Fictions, we meet a mannequin, a woman with an unexpected past, and a screen goddess.
In a share house in Toronto, Canada, three women decide to use their time in quarantine to start a punk band. The only problem is, they don't know how to play their instruments.
We look back at what got us through the lockdown (for a lot of us that involved online shopping) and we take a glimpse at that first week of the pandemic when it's fairly safe to say, everyone felt a bit nuts.
COVID-19 stories from those who endured the lockdown alone and those who were never left alone.
Either having nowhere to isolate or a job that requires you to be in thick of things. This week Corona Tales explores stories from those who can't just bunker down during this pandemic.
COVID-19 stories of our most intimate relationships, the reimagining we're all doing around them and a gentle reminder, that the world has been here before.
Having tracked Phil Spencer's teenage journey as a political, chest-thumping, angsty poet, in the final episode of No Standing. No Dancing, the middle-class father of two grapples with his newfound identity.
Phil Spencer drags out old notebooks to revisit some of his classic rhyming couplets and haikus penned as an angsty teenager.
For teenagers of the 80s and 90s, forming a rock band with your high school mates was almost a rite of passage. Comedian and writer Phil Spencer remembers doing just that.
It’s 2003 and the US, Britain and Australia have officially invaded Iraq. So what’s that got to do with a spotty 17-year-old from Oxfordshire?
No Standing. No Dancing, written by comedian Phil Spencer, is a four-part personal memoir about parenthood, poetry and Peppa Pig.
As floodwaters rise on a central Queensland property, repressed memories emerge of a trauma left behind.
A writer who can't write, with appalling taste in men, finds herself in possession of a mysterious itch.
A young woman revisits the backyard pool of her childhood and is reminded that you can never really tell who your neighbours are.
A man's life disintegrates in the wake of broken trust and religious fervour. By renowned writer Tony Birch.
Radio National Fictions is the ABC's place for creative audio fiction. Working with Australia's best writers and emerging creators, Fictions will bring you thought-provoking writing and sumptuous sound design. We deal in the hilarious, the gritty and sometimes the dystopian. Starts Saturday, January 25.