'Lamu' by Noel O'Regan

“ As Aisling drives, Noah struggles to match the abandoned streets that now stream past his window with the city he has experienced the past few days – gone is the feeble crawl of traffic, the strangling smell of diesel, the stutter through roundabouts where knuckles harried closed car windows, and hands offered roasted corn on a stick, fresh mangoes, pineapple, and, one time, a kitten.”

Photo by Miville Tremblay, via Flickr.

The August 2017 Long Story, Short offering, 'Lamu', is by Irish writer and Sean Dunne Young Writer winner Noel O'Regan. Join hopeful but uncertain Noah on a road trip with a former flame through Kenya, as they skirt the boundaries of reconnection and dissolution. READ 'LAMU'.

The Monk of Zege

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Photo © Tommy Pedersen

As he was waiting to hear the knock again, it daunted him, a thought he explored timidly so many times before, but was not quite courageous enough to say it out loud, to himself or the other monks in the peninsula. What if it was his Lord, finally coming to see him?

October 2014's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'The Monk of Zege' by Mahtem Shifferaw, a writer and cultural activist who grew up in Eritrea and Ethiopia. In her tale, we are invited into the life of a hermit monk who dwells both within crisis and extraordinary beauty. Zege's landscape is teeming with wildlife which encroaches upon the monk's solitude--particularly his wounded companion, a vervet monkey. Photo by Tommy Pedersen. READ 'THE MONK OF ZEGE'.

Woman Driving, Man Sleeping by Alan McMonagle

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Photo © Jason Cameron

Cathy has an amazing scream and when she sticks her head out of the driver window and issues her command, the way ahead parts like a miracle sea. 'That's my girl,' Dominic mutters, leaning his head against the passenger window and closing his eyes.       

The September 2014 offering of Long Story, Short Journal is new work by Alan McMonagle, author of 'Psychotic Episodes' (Arlen House). 'Woman Driving, Man Sleeping' puts readers behind the driver's seat on a couple's driving holiday in Africa, moving at a clip where it becomes clear we cannot know what is coming around the corner. CLICK HERE TO READ 'WOMAN DRIVING, MAN SLEEPING'.