UWA Publishing has acquired world rights to Mother Salad, a collection of short stories, by Naarm-based author Helena Pantsis for publication in 2026.
Mother Salad is a series of small fictions that explore the plights of womanhood through the lens of mothers and the children of mothers. In 21 stories of the strange and the uncanny, Mother Salad unravels the image of the woman in shambles, identity fractured and exploring a world which has long abandoned the creature it so carefully constructed, betrayed by the very people she has been taught to trust.
Kate Pickard, publisher of UWA Publishing, says “We are thrilled to be publishing Helena’s latest collection of short stories Mother Salad. Helena has written a captivating work of feminist literature and we think it will appeal to readers who enjoyed books like She is Haunted by Paige Clarke and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung.”
Helena Pantsis, on the acquisition of their short story collection, says: “It's a real honour to have my work published with UWAP; with an amazing line-up of stories in their repertoire, it's a huge privilege to become part of this publisher's history. I'm excited to be working with a passionate team that advocates for diverse voices and stories that break the mould.”
Helena Pantsis (she/they) is an editor, writer and artist from Naarm, Australia with a fond appreciation for the weird, the dark, and the experimental. Her works have been published in Overland, Island, Meanjin, and Cordite, among others. She has won Going Down Swinging’s micro-microfiction challenge in 2021, has been shortlisted in WigLeaf’s top 50, nominated for Best American Short Stories and Best Short Fictions, and was the 2022 recipient of the H B Higgins Scholarship. In 2024, her debut short story collection, GLUTT, was published by Grattan Street Press.
Mother Salad was acquired through UWA Publishing’s general submissions and will be published in April 2026.
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