James Worner is an Australian-based writer and scholar currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Technology Sydney. His research seeks to expose masculinities lost in the shadow of Australia’s Anzac hegemony while exploring new opportunities for contemporary historiography. He is the recipient of the Doctoral Scholarship in Historical Consciousness at the university’s Australian Centre of Public History and will be hosted by the University of Bologna during 2017 on a doctoral research writing scholarship. ‘Parallel Lines’ is one of a collection of stories, The Shapes of Us, exploring liminal spaces of modern life: class, gender, sexuality, race, religion and education. It looks at lives, like lines, that do not meet but which travel in proximity, simultaneously attracted and repelled. James’ short stories have been published in various journals and anthologies.