The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan

From the winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction 2026

Can you sever a shadow? Can you outswim the rising tide?

A monitor lizard in Borneo tries to convince a boy not to kill a mafia boss. An American scam artist and an aspiring K-pop star fall in love – without ever seeing each other’s faces. After Islam is banned, a man uses a time machine to visit ‘The Japanese Goebbels’. A suicidal Australian boxer is given one more chance at humanity.

The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan is an explosive collection of award-winning, surreal short stories. Characters across the globe confront the most human of struggles – grief, doubt, addiction, lost love and friendships that shape or betray them. From Bosnia to Borneo, the United States to Australia to Mars, these are stories where lizards talk, cars fly and humans become birds, Sufi mysticism and AI technology collide. A world where nothing is ever what it appears to be.

'The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan is a masterful story collection by one of Australia’s finest writers. To read Omar Musa is to be stirred and shaken – and loved.' Tony Birch