My short story diet this week has been An Elegy for Easterly, the debut collection by Petina Gappah, published last year and winner of the Guardian First Book Award. The thirteen stories, set in Gappah’s native Zimbabwe, are portraits of a foreign place full of familiar people.

The Zimbabwe of [...] Continue Reading…

My regular stint on the Litro blog comes to an end this week, although I hope to chime in now and again with occasional pieces.  So for this last post I hope you’ll allow me the indulgence of talking about my favourite short fiction, and picking out five examples.

I [...] Continue Reading…

Think of Icebergs & London Park, by Tania Hershman

The Value of Wales, a poem by Paul Lyalls

Once Upon a Time the Medway Literati, by Lawrence John

Playing, by Frank Burton

Dispatches from Cape Farewell, with contributions from Lemn Sissay, KT Tunstall, Marcus Brigstocke and more

Miracle, by Nora Nadjarian

The Reconstruction, [...] Continue Reading…

You have your copy of Litro; now we go beyond the page with a round of events to tantalise the grey matter. We’re warming up for spring and a well-earned round of lyrical escapism to power us out of the bleak mid-winter. We have an exclusive reading by one [...] Continue Reading…