Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the thorniest problems of modern life: sex, relationships, identity and the internet. We see a tryhard male feminist’s passionate allyship turn to a furious and debilitating nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that his feminism isn’t getting him laid; a young woman’s […]
A dazzling collection of hilarious and heart-wrenching stories united by a groundbreaking theme: each is a sidelong glance at the lives of women who – either by choice or by circumstance – will never be mothers and who feel every way it is possible to feel about it. A dancer discovers she can never have children – a revelation that […]
A young girl spends her days on a double-decker bus. A bride-to-be prays to St Valentine’s bones. Bouquets are found all over a museum. Teenagers gather to dissect a human body. Brimming with compassion and thrumming with energy, these stories are scrupulous in their attention to detail, epic in their scope. In this bravura debut […]
Grounded in both the contemporary United States and a variety of dystopias, the new stories in Karen E. Bender’s third collection examine the evolving dynamics of the nuclear family in adolescence, motherhood, the empty nest, and caring for the aging parent. From a young woman who wants to learn secret words to terminate a pregnancy […]
Rooted in 70s and 80s Britain, this evocative flash fiction collection captures the moments when girls and women first glimpsed their own power – or lack of it. Set against a backdrop of smoky kitchens, playground politics, and flickering TV sets, these stories trace the quiet rebellions and uneasy compromises of lives shaped by expectation […]
WINNER, EDGE HILL SHORT STORY DEBUT PRIZE 2024 “Visceral and unsettling, beautiful and charming, all at once.” – Meena Kandasamy A man jumps, the platform empties, then the stories begin. Filled with tales of tragedy, love, hope and frustration, Malachi McIntosh’s debut collection of short stories offers surreal and satirical accounts of the many perils of […]
Winner of the International Booker Prize. In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions have garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well India’s most prestigious […]