 His first collection of poetry, "The Cold Front" (1983), won the Ann Elder Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize; "The Book of Sei" (1985), his first collection of stories, was said by Don Anderson to be ‘the most exciting short-fiction debut in Australian since Peter Carey’s’; his second novel, "The Fern Tattoo" (2007), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award.His fiction has drawn frequent comparison with Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.From 2000 until 2018 he was co-editor of the journal "Southerly".