Beating the Herring by Marie Gethins Cross to shoulder, you bear the burden, sleeves covered in white fragments. A single herring remains. It trembles, glinting silver, then gold in the Easter Morning light. The river beckons. Earlier, a row of…
BackStory: Seven Questions with Tara Isabel Zambrano
BackStory: Seven Questions with Tara Isabel Zambrano Author of In The Arms of Khajuraho, 970 CE What inspired you to write ‘The Arms of Khajuraho, 970 CE’? I have always had a strong desire to write historical fiction pieces especially…
In The Arms of Khajuraho, 970 CE
In The Arms of Khajuraho, 970 CE by Tara Isabel Zambrano I am all stone, the monolith giving way to a slight slope below my navel. For a moment it seems as if a dark river has appeared between my…
BackStory: Seven Questions with Daphne Milne
BackStory: Seven Questions with Daphne Milne Author of In Whitby you may have the misfortune to be caught What inspired you to write ‘In Whitby you may have the misfortune to be caught’? I had been writing a piece about…
In Whitby you may have the misfortune to be caught
In Whitby you may have the misfortune to be caught by Daphne Milne Dracula country, graveyard seeded with teeth and none of them sprouting. Alice and Bessie swinging on the cusp of the moon. Me watching Tat the Cat knitting…
BackStory: Four Questions with Ranjabali Chaudhuri
BackStory: Four Questions with Ranjabali Chaudhuri Author of Windows What inspired you to write ‘Windows’? Christmas! Just walking on Oxford Street with those grand, dreamy displays sends you to another world doesn’t it? And they have been there for years…
Windows
Windows by Ranjabali Chaudhuri I love shop windows. Their colours, jewels, and mannequins sing the dulcet promise of possibility. They let me be anyone. Superimposed upon the clothes on display, my reflection can be a soldier in a red and…
BackStory: Four Questions with Matthew Richardson
BackStory: Four Questions with Matthew Richardson Author of Foundering What inspired you to write this ‘Foundering’? I think there is an interesting dynamic to be found when examining those who in times gone by made their living on the coast,…
Foundering
Foundering by Matthew Richardson It’s only when Ma and Pa wake me that I realise the cries weren’t in my dreams. I’m told to get dressed quickly. Truth be told there’s not much to put on – a shirt and…
BackStory: Five Questions with Lilly Posnett
BackStory: Five Questions with Lilly Posnett Author of Bird Sounds What inspired you to write ‘Bird Sounds’? I’ve only recently discovered flash fiction and I was considering what kind of moments the form is uniquely able to capture. I came…