The Underground

Photo © David Griffin
Photo © David Griffin

‘We don’t really know. We haven’t had time yet to think it through properly.’ That’s what Grace said. JJ and herself had just come back into the room. Half an hour earlier they’d snaked off somewhere else in the Pope’s house for a ride. What I’d asked was ‘what the hell are you two doing here seeing as you’ve both been dead for years’.  

The Underground--November's story, like Halloween which has just passed, marks a liminal space between the living and the dead. The darkest of satire, Dave Lordan's story takes us through the struggle of a homeless father to make a life for himself and his daughter on the streets of Rome. Think Jonathan Swift meets Christopher Marlowe.

The Rainy Season

​Photo originated from www.squareamerica.com​, a source of vernacular and "found" photography.

Photo originated from www.squareamerica.com​, a source of vernacular and "found" photography.

"She worked in an art gallery. And on a Tuesday in February – the week the rain began, the rain that would rain until all records were broken – she was sitting behind her desk, doing whatever she did (Michael still has no idea, the desk was minimalist), when she noticed a visitor on the far side of the gallery. And then what? He stood in front of one of the paintings, he took off his coat and slung it over his shoulder, he turned towards Maria and smiled and Maria recognised her father, who had been dead for ten years."

October 2012's story is 'The Rainy Season' by Charles Boyle, a poet and prizewinning writer. A short story collection is forthcoming from Salt Publishing in 2013. Click here to read 'The Rainy Season'.  ​

Misbegotten

​Photo © Julia Van Middlesworth

​Photo © Julia Van Middlesworth

"Floydean might be a problem once she got a sniff of the money. Not that Flo told anyone about the will, yet she knew somehow the family would telegraph scraps of truths and untruths across telephone lines and behind knitting needles, over dinner plates of chicken bones and cold mashed potatoes." 

We are proud to announce that our September 2012, and inaugural, story is by Seán Ó Faoláin Prize winner Julia Van Middlesworth. 'Misbegotten' is a dark and psychologically apt tale of family fracturing and estrangement, packed with chilling imagery​. CLICK HERE TO READ 'MISBEGOTTEN'.