The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan

A dazzling, bravura collection of stories from one of Australia’s most admired multi-disciplinary artists.

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

'Surreal, wry and arresting stories from an inventive imagination at full stretch.' Cate Kennedy

About the Author

Omar Musa is an author, visual artist, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan, Australia. He has written two novels (including Fierceland), three books of poetry, five hip-hop records, and two plays, Since Ali Died and The Offering (A Plastic Ocean Oratorio), with cellist Mariel Roberts Musa. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Best Australian Stories and Best of Australian Poems.

His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015. Fierceland won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. He has had several solo exhibitions, including The Hurt Business.