I had my own studio. Well, I called it a studio. In the garage where we rented, at the cold end, next to the cans of lawn mower...
Peter Farrar
The Distance Between Loves is Peter’s new short fiction collection. It is now available and published by In Case of Emergency Press.
This collection offers a variety of stories. People with marriages ending struggle to take the next steps of their lives. War veterans strive to recover from trauma. A desperate artist replaces Andy Warhol pictures with his own work. Dance classes go wrong. A wife who died from cancer is mourned. Two brothers discover their grandfather is a war criminal. Family members attempt to reconnect at their mother’s wedding. A man rediscovers a lost love late in life. A tightrope walker prepares for performance. Along the way suburban backyards, war zones, a lighthouse, cherry orchard and fishing boat are visited.
The Distance Between Loves is a snapshot of Australia. It explores our vulnerabilities, values, joys and hopes. Some of these short stories have won awards. Others chosen for publications in Australia and overseas. Many are offered for the first time in this collection.
Howard Firkin, the Editorial Director of in case of emergency press, praised The Distance Between Loves, writing, “The Distance between Loves is a joyful parade of stories of the human experience of love. Peter Farrar has assembled a collection that is at once poignant, funny, sad, astonishing. Woven throughout, threading its way around and among the infinite absurdities of love, shines the sympathetic wisdom of a master storyteller.”
If you’d like a signed copy, please get in touch with the contact form on this site. Books are $30 plus postage.
Copies can also be ordered from the publisher’s website (unsigned).
ABOUT PETER
Peter Farrar would tell you he’s been writing stories forever. From making them up using stick figures as a child to the pieces of fiction he now creates. ‘The Distance Between Loves’ is Peter’s second book. It’s a collection of short stories that has been a long time coming. His first, ‘The Nine Flaws of Affection’ was published in 2010. Peter’s short fiction has been featured in a range of literary journals and magazines in Australia as well as the United States, some winning awards. He has dabbled in feature article writing on a range of topics including his love of test match cricket.
Peter is also pursuing interests in writing plays. You can read about his first full length play ‘Who I’m Doing This For’ here
As well, his short play ‘Worse than Here’ was performed at the Board Shorts Festival in Ferntree Gully during 2023. In March 2025 his short one person play ‘The Most Alive Part of Me’ was staged along with other monologues at The Meat Market in North Melbourne as part of the Metropolis Monologues. A further short play, ‘Salmon’ was performed as part of the First Curtain Festival in 2026.
Through his writing life Peter also worked in a succession of mainly Human Resources positions. His corporate career was never described as stellar or meteoric. He is originally from Sydney, moving to Melbourne where he pursued unemployment, a Sunday morning breakfast shift on community radio and travelling.
Two greyhounds provide his muse and occasionally check in on him while he works.
Events
Theatre Play: “Who I’m Doing This For”
This was Peter’s full length play, written by him over three years. It won first prize in the 2026 Amethyst Award, offered annually by Melbourne Writers’ Theatre for a new […]
Book launch
The Distance Between Loves was launched at the Beaumaris Lifesaving Club. The occasion was well attended and hosted by Isabella Farrar. The venue offered sweeping bay and beach views and as […]