Compost by John Nicholson The Berlin Wall is down and my pension is in real marks. The notes feel good between finger and thumb, substantial. My shovel feels good too, balanced horizontally in my left hand, cold wood and colder…
BackStory: Five Questions with Matt Kendrick
BackStory: Five Questions with Matt Kendrick Author of Life at the Colliery, 1832-1845 What inspired you to write ‘Life at the Colliery’? This piece germinated from a single word – ‘darkness.’ Being afraid of the dark is such a universal…
Life at the Colliery, 1832-1845
Life at the Colliery, 1832-1845 by Matt Kendrick Six, Trapper It’s dark. Darker than coal. Darker than Ma’s eyes when I came home caked in mud after football on the common. Which is before. When we weren’t down here. Crouched…
BackStory: Six Questions with Stella Klein
BackStory: Six Questions with Stella Klein Author of Becoming Helen What are your favourite pieces of historical flash, prose poetry or hybrid work? What do you like about it them? Petrol by Martina Evans is a novella-in-flash that springs to…
Becoming Helen
Becoming Helen by Stella Klein This is my somewhere. These are my spaces and surfaces, luring me endlessly about. With this hunger in the middle of me, here is where I come to sniff and drool, to shovel, chomp and…
BackStory: Five Questions with Donna L Greenwood
BackStory: Five Questions with Donna L Greenwood Author of Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me What inspired you to write ‘Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me’? I read about something called the ‘harem effect’ which refers to a…
Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me
Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me by Donna L Greenwood In her silent world, she is industrious; head bowed, even whilst she is looking at the stars. Edward’s large head looms like fat, round cheese whilst he watches her;…
BackStory: Five Questions with Bronwen Griffiths
BackStory: Five Questions with Bronwen Griffiths Author of No More Than an Eggshell What inspired you to write this ‘No More Than an Eggshell’? I was inspired to write this piece after attending a poetry workshop with Jane Lovell at…
No More Than an Eggshell
No More Than an Eggshell by Bronwen Griffiths (Rye Harbour, November 1928) I pin up my sheets and see how tomorrow the weather will turn. Autumn is almost gone. Winter is soon to be upon us. The dock plants lie…
BackStory: Five Questions with PJ Stephenson
BackStory: Five Questions with PJ Stephenson Author of Black Two What inspired you to write ‘Black Two’? I love history and have developed a special interest in the Second World War, partly stimulated by the exploits of family members: Cyril…