Mama and Aunt Fawzia had really outdone themselves this Eid. A delicious array of food covered the dining room table, the tempting aroma of curries and rice blending into a delectable fusion that had my mouth watering. “Hamza, I said stop that!” Mama scolded, shooing my little brother and his greedy hands away from the […]
Creative Writing
Resurrection (Olivia Powell)
When someone sets you on fire, you learn very quickly who your real friends are. From the second the flame touches your skin, there will be those that turn their backs. There will be those that stay to watch you burn but the moment you crumble into ash they will be gone. When someone sets […]
Auld Lang Syne (Neha Shaji)
Somewhere, beneath the gauze of layers wrapped round and round her soul, Clarissa has a steady centre. She doesn’t always know what it is, what it means, only that no matter who she is, it thrums inside of her like a heartbeat. She was not alone in the stifling, fake New Year’s party, where the […]
No Snow Falls Here (Chris Brown)
Up in the high, dry peaks of the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range is where you’d find the world’s most pristine water. But that was long ago, when the rainfall turned into curving streams, when the snowmelt turned into a clear blue lake. Now, no snow falls here, and there is neither a lake, nor […]
The Colour of Oak (James Turner)
The way that the sun rises up over the hills surrounding the lake really is quite beautiful. Red streaks of light explode into the clouds and a thin layer of mist forms just above the water. On windy days, you can watch the reeds rustling close to the pier where they push the boats out […]
The challenge: NaNoWriMo 2015
November, for many people around the world, either means Movember or NaNoWriMo. While Movember is far better known, the National Novel Writing Month Challenge is surely the more daunting of the two. The challenge, known informally as NaNoWriMo, gives participants 30 days to write a 50,000 words novel. That’s just fewer than 1,700 words every day. […]
Spooky Showcase: I Can Finally See
Everything happened at once after that television interview, which was two days after my seventy-seventh birthday. As I always have before broadcasts, I felt a certain level of unease as I drank with the other guests in the green room. I could hear one of them speaking to me, I even articulated back to him […]
Art to Art: Madison Stewart
A few weeks ago I was wandering around a bookshop in London and I came across a new series of Penguin Classics, 80 little black books, each 80p. I wanted to buy all of them, but one title caught my eye: ‘Well, they are gone, and here I must remain’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The […]
Short Story: The Black Angel
The raven black wings gleamed in the afternoon sun. Two Maleficent horns twisted up from a closely shaved afro. Other than these two accessories, their wearer was completely naked but for a few straps of leather and a pair of lace up stiletto boots Louboutin would have died for. My two girlfriends and I watched […]
MacGuffin Launch: 30-06-2015
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone – there’s a new platform for creative writing in town, and it has the potential to revolutionise student workshopping. [dropcap size=big]C[/dropcap]omma Press is probably one of the most well-known independent publishers in the UK, with an impressive reputation for short story writing. But in times of uncertainty […]