A story about motherhood and loss by Emma Penruddock following a Mother reflecting on her life.

It’s Thursday and I’m in the baby changing facility at Waitrose eating a no-butter flapjack. The air smells like baby wipes and there is a small, bright spotlight that draws out my shadow as I move beneath it. It’s not a bad place to eat in secret while I mentally guess replacement ingredients for butter. […]

Her name was Mrs Martinez, Mrs J. Martinez, and when she said the ‘J’ part, her eyes squinted, just to let you know that when you addressed her, you’d better say it, too. She was my third-grade art teacher. She was chic. With almost every other sentence, she mentioned she was from France, even though […]

I wasn’t good at constructions. Orestes used to be amazing. The trap was a sieve borrowed from his grandmother without her knowing about it. A small stake, made of wood he had cut from the floor of the abandoned house right next to his family’s. Two ropes from his mother’s laundry. If I remember correctly, […]

He sounded different in the confines of the car. The rain on the windshield threatened to drown out his voice, a sound like the tapping of a thousand fingers. ‘So.’ Ellen shoved her schoolbag down between her legs. It didn’t have any of her school things in it. Instead it had changes of clothes and […]

An award-winning Irish poet, Gary Allen was born in Ballymena, left college, travelled and worked throughout mainland Europe, settling in Holland for some years before returning home. He has published twenty collections across Ireland, the UK and the USA. He has also been published in several international literary magazines, including The Irish Times and The […]

Ana de Andrada was born in Rio de Janeiro and lived in Germany, Pakistan and Brazil as a child. After graduating in English and History of Art from UCL, she worked as a journalist, teacher and translator before devoting herself to writing fiction. She lives in Berkshire with her husband. Her debut novel, The Loneliness […]

Wayne Exton is a 44-year-old writer and father of three, based in Staffordshire. He has worked in the voluntary sector for over two decades, supporting people through homelessness, youth work, mental health, and addiction recovery – experiences that quietly shape the emotional heart of his fiction. He writes literary fiction and personal essays exploring fatherhood, […]

Emma Penruddock is a short story author, whose stories have been shortlisted and longlisted for a number of short story competitions.  She lives with her quite grown-up children in a deserted cottage just outside the garrison town of Youghal, County Cork. A short Q&A with Emma Penruddock can be read below: Q: If you could […]

Jasper Cairns is an amateur short-story author based in the East Midlands who very much enjoys bananas. Though he also has been known to eat oranges and apples, bananas would definitely be his favourite. He also makes short films.   Q: If you could travel back in time, which of the great writers would you […]