Story Cities: flash fictions

By Annabel Banks and Cherry Potts

Story Cities explore ways in which stories respond to, reflect and re-imagine the city.

Explore new short fictions in multiple genres that address the city. A guide book to the fictional city, all cities, any city: its markets, squares, cafés, hotels, parks, stations and ports; the main streets, side streets, back alleys dead ends and the crossroads. Never identified, the city has a voice of its own.
Includes work from writers in Australia, Eire, Indonesia,Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, USA, and right across the UK
Annabel Banks, Melaina Barnes, Laura Besley, Maja Bodenstein, Jayne Buxton, Sarah-Clare Conlon, Rosamund Davies, Roland Denning, Liam Hogan, Cath Holland, Belinda Huang, Catherine Jones, Aisling Keogh, Jess Kilby, Jasmin Kirkbride, Stuart Larner, Wes Lee, Emma Lee, Cathy Lennon, Ash Lim, C.A. Limina, Máire Malone, David Mathews, Nicholas McGaughey, Rachael McGill, Dave Murray, Pedro Basso Neves, Alexandra Penland, Cherry Potts, Matthew Pountney, Arna Radovich, Kam Rehal, Jane Roberts, Reshma Ruia, Jesse Sensibar, Shamini Sriskandarajah , Miriam Sorrentino, Stuart Larner, Patty Tomsky, Evleen Towey, Nic Vine, Rob Walton, Steven Wingate,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Release date: May 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781909208797

Annabel Banks

Annabel Banks is an award-winning writer of poetry and prose. Her work can be found in such places as The Manchester Review, Litro, The Stockholm Review, Under the Radar and 3:AM, and was included in Eyewear's Best New British & Irish Poets 2016. Her writing has received multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize, with further nominations for the Queen's Ferry Press Best Short Fictions, Blazevox's Bettering American Poetry, Best News Poets [US] and the Derringer Awards and was longlisted for the Royal Academy/Pindrop Short Story Award. She lives in London.

Book preview

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First published in UK 2019 by Arachne  Press Limited

100 Grierson Road, London SE23 1NX

www.arachnepress.com

©Arachne Press Limited

ISBNs:

print: 978-1-909208-78-0

ePub: 978-1-909208-79-7

mobi/kindle: 978-1-909208-80-3

The moral rights of the authors and designer have been asserted.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Except for short passages for review purposes no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Arachne  Press.

Thanks to Muireann Grealy for her proofing.

Printed on wood-free paper in the UK by

TJ International, Padstow.

INDIVIDUAL COPYRIGHT

A Quarter Glass of Wine © Jayne Buxton 2019

Alleys and Dumpsters, In Between, Sunny Day © Patty Tomsky 2019

At the Crossroads © Matthew Pountney 2019

Backwater © David Mathews 2019

Between Skyscrapers © Wes Lee 2019

Careful Where You Tread, Eavesdropping, The Right Place, and Today’s Arrivals and Departures © Rosamund Davies 2019

Chance Meetings and Happy New Year © Maja Bodenstein 2019

City Tour and Coffee Meeting © Stuart Larner 2019

Coffee © Shamini Sriskandarajah 2019

Dance Where No One Watches © Cath Holland 2019

Dawn of the City © Nicholas McGaughey 2019

Feet in a Yard © Sarah-Clare Conlon 2019

Flotsam and Jetsam and Sic Transit Gloria Mundi © Cathy Lennon 2019

Foundation Myth © Cherry Potts 2019

Go Directly to Go © Rob Walton 2019

Hole in the Wall © Ash Lim 2019

How to Go with the Flow: a Survival Guide © Arna Radovich 2019

Humans Of © Belinda Huang 2019

I Left the City that Night © Pedro Basso Neves 2019

In the Park, Man with the Guitar and Switching On © Kam Rehal 2019

Lifted and On Whose Bench Are You Sitting? © Jane Roberts 2019

Lost and Found © Catherine Jones 2019

Not Every Train © Jasmin Kirkbride 2019

Other Signals © Annabel Banks 2019

Passage © Jess Kilby 2019

School Bus © Evleen Towey 2019

Seeing in the Dark © Roland Denning 2019

Slim Odds © Laura Besley 2019

Spider Goes to the Park © Melaina Barnes 2019

Starlight © C.A. Limina 2019

Survivor © Rachael McGill 2019

Tech Down © Nic Vine 2019

The Alleyway i and The Alleyway ii © Miriam Sorrentino 2019

The Call of the Sea © Aisling Keogh 2019

The City’s Heartbeat © Emma Lee 2019

The Promise © Reshma Ruia 2019

The Second Car from the Front © Alexandra Penland 2019

Truing the Square © Dave Murray 2019

Two Till Four © Liam Hogan 2019

Walking Back to the Future © Máire Malone 2019

You Stand in the Secret Place © Steven Wingate 2019

Your Brand of Smokes © Jesse Sensibar 2019

CONTENTS

Introduction

TERMINI

Today’s Arrivals and Departures

Feet in a Yard

City Tour

The Call of the Sea

HOTELS

The Right Place

Lifted

Your Brand of Smokes

Two Till Four

Starlight

TRANSPORT

Coffee

Not Every Train

The Second Car from the Front

Slim Odds

Other Signals

School Bus

CAFÉS

Coffee Meeting

Eavesdropping

A Quarter Glass of Wine

The Promise

MAIN STREETS

Switching On

Walking Back to the Future

Flotsam and Jetsam

You Stand in the Secret Place

How to Go with the Flow: A Survival Guide

Between Skyscrapers

Dawn of the City

Seeing in the Dark

I Left the City that Night

MARKET

The City’s Heartbeat

CROSSROADS

Foundation Myth

Go Directly to Go

At the Crossroads

Chance Meetings

SIDE STREETS

The Alleyway i

The Alleyway ii

Backwater

Alleys and Dumpsters, In Between, Sunny Day

Lost and Found

Dance Where No One Watches

Careful Where You Tread

Hole in the Wall

Passage

Tech Down

SQUARES AND PARKS

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Truing the Square

Spider Goes to the Park

Survivor

In the Park, Man with the Guitar

On Whose Bench Are You Sitting?

Happy New Year

Humans Of

INTRODUCTION

Which city are you in? How have you come to be here? What are the characters, voices, stories that you have come across in your city? Your experiences – the people and places you encounter, the things you hear and see, the thoughts and sensations you feel – are at once individual and also connected to countless others in cities everywhere. Your city is also the city.

These were the thoughts that inspired us to put together this collection. Through the voices and perspectives of many different writers, it offers readers a book that they can take with them into the city to experience it through stories.

You will not find in its pages any cities, landmarks, or even characters that are identified by name. These are stories about any city,