Kate Liston-Mills
To Heal A Lyrebird
2025
To Heal a Lyrebird is a bold venture into the subconscious to produce art of hope and promise, proving that there is a better way forward through this war-torn, indifferent and climate changed world. This is the blueprint. Its beating heart is the unique bond between a mother and her son ... Can they survive a broken world when all the odds are against them, and nothing is as it was before?
Dear Ibis
Spineless Wonders, 2021
From the author of The Waterfowl Are Drunk! comes a pointed and poignant collection of short stories for the present moment. Dear Ibis is a tender yet unflinching meditation on what it means to feel at home, and what it means to have this taken away. Set largely in New South Wales’ lush South Coast against the haunting backdrop of the 2019-20 bushfires come stories of birth and death, disability and resilience, colonial greed and moral reckonings. Infused with lyrical prose, vast coastal backdrop and a vividly realised cast of characters, Dear Ibis is a letter for anyone feeling unmoored trying to find their way back to shore.
“Grounded in regional Australia, and with a canny eye for character, Kate Liston-Mills’ stories tug urgently at your jacket sleeve: Quick, follow me. There’s something you need to see.”
About the Author
Kate Liston-Mills is the author of The Waterfowl Are Drunk! (2016), Dear Ibis (2021) and To Heal a Lyrebird (2025) and is based in Pambula, NSW. She has worked as a journalist for both regional and urban publications and her short stories, reviews and poetry have been published in various Australian journals and anthologies.
Kate sustained an Acquired Brain Injury in 2004 which resulted in three hemorrhages, two in her frontal lobe and one in her occipital lobe. Despite the challenges and residual damages left from this injury, Kate has continued to study and work part time, finding much solace and fulfillment in the creative process. She has a Bachelor of Education (Primary), Bachelor of Creative Writing, Freelance Journalism Certificate and Master of Education (Teacher-Librarian). Kate lives on Yuin land on Australia’s Far South Coast in a little town called Pambula, working as a mother, creative writer, tutor and recently as a radio host for Little Fictions On Air, a radio program that showcases the best of Australian short fiction.
