The Fiction Shelf

America is in depression and its small towns and working families are struggling. This story’s dialogue is local and its characters are troubled. A childhood lived in an adult world is the difficult backdrop for this engrossing period tale.

A wonderfully‐paced, funny and insightful story about a mother getting to grips with her son’s impending marriage. Family Stone is warm and engaging and deals with familiar issues without ever seeming trite.

With an exceptional ear and a near Turner‐esque mastery of landscape, the poet crafts an image of Grey Seals in a Scottish Loch. Rich and steeped in imagery, this poem is one to read more than once.

A poem that, for all its personal intentions, is intensely physical. It reads like an attempt to describe intangible feelings through vision, touch and sight and is aesthetically very accomplished.

Frustration is drawn throughout this poem. There’s no attempt at an answer, nor does the work preach, but disappointment with the world is conveyed by stark and direct words.

A meandering, pensive poem whose structure matches perfectly with the direction of the voice’s thoughts. In few words, it deals with youth and old age and challenges us to think on what is between.

An honest, lyric sonnet whose simple imagery captures excellently the gentle expectations of youth and the desire to reclaim them for the present.

Here, the author has embraced the theme of our ‘One Day’ competition in a unique way and created an engaging and surprisingly uplifting piece. It’s humorous and very real.

In this piece the writer captures the breathless pace of modern urban living and pairs it with the single minded consumerist selfishness of its main protagonist. The piece follows a day in the life of Jon, a have it all city worker struggling to maintain multiple relationships, multiple addictions and a veneer of professionalism. In style it owes much to British writing on the post modern condition and captures it in its ugliest light.

This story dismisses what we all know and reminds us what loss is. Human, concise and powerful without ever exploiting its inspiration, a tremendous pleasure to read.