Published by Black Inc. in 2015, Short Blacks gathers twelve compact pieces of Australian writing: essays, reportage, memoir, political argument and cultural criticism, each designed to be read more like a shot than a meal.

Helen Garner writes through landscape and perception in Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice; Robyn Davidson through movement and place in No Fixed Address; Anna Krien through drinking culture in Booze Territory; Robert Manne takes on Julian Assange in Cypherpunk Revolutionary; Richard Flanagan writes on freedom and Australian public life; Galarrwuy Yunupingu on tradition, truth and Indigenous political thought. Also included are works by Les Murray, Noel Pearson, David Malouf, Simon Leys, John Birmingham and Karen Hitchcock.

Taken together, they make a sharp little cross-section of Australian intellectual and literary life. The original box set contains all twelve volumes and ran to 976 pages collectively. 

This is only sold as a full set.

Black Inc., Melbourne, 2015. First box-set edition. Twelve paperback volumes housed in the original printed card slipcase. Books show only light handling and shelf wear; bindings firm and interiors clean. Slipcase has more noticeable rubbing, creasing and wear to corners and edges, including splitting/fraying at one end as pictured. Overall books very good; box bit tatty but together.