In Which Dragons Are Real But

Book cover: remix
Book cover: remix

There’s a lot to think about, if you’re a questioning young person in 2018.

In this, our fifth anniversary collection, writers look impending threat straight in the eye—a woman tends her grandfather’s vegetable patch as the world freezes; bodies are broken and violated; a scientist contemplates a strange blue death; toxic rules for boys are conveyed by tweet; a dragon is more persuasive, in a story plot, than a lesbian couple. But even as our writers contemplate all that troubles them, there is redemption, even victory—a woman makes an astonishing visit to the Amazon; another defies the boyfriend who chronicles their impending break-up on post-it notes; a husband is lovingly supported through an uncanny obsession.

So much is here: satire, the surreal, sly humour, awe.

So much of it is tender. So much of it is dark.

The dragons are real, but…



Table of Contents

Foreword

1

Introduction

3

Short Stories

Sarah Tucker · Exit Stage Right

7

Charlotte Byrne · Georgy Girl

15

Steph Elliot Vickers · White Walls

21

Nanou Blair-Gould · Innocuous Disposition

29

Katharine Cheetham · Bruises

33

Andrew D’Arcy Collins

So I Finally Rescued My Piano

39

Ellenor Pickles · Daisy Girl

45

Molly Glinski · Transcript: Interview Room 2

49

Jacob Bathgate · Fossils

55

Melissa Healey-Mullee · 99 In The Rain

59

Stiina Honkavaara · A Taste of God

65

Veslemøy Stavdahl · White Bird

73

Hanna Andersson · Compost

79

Yen-Yen Lu · Friends

85

Serena Michel

Ojos Que No Ven, Corazón No Siente

93

Glenn Shadbolt · The Happening Now

101

Frederik Helgesen ·Thank You, Mr Lighthouse

111

Flash Fiction

Arun Jeetoo · The Exhibition of Margo

117

Thomas Cole · Fake Updates

119

Mehmet Suleyman · And Now You Know Her

121

Charlie-Anne Butterworth

Nuclear

123

Palace of the Babies

124

Liz McAnder · Fatigue

126

Jess Styles · Freaks Anonymous

129

Georgina Charles

Yujin

132

Yujin’s Mother

134

Poetry

Sean Wai Keung

the spring bamboo

139

the new golden phoenix

140

Bronia Waldron · For Simon & Garfunkel

141

Natalie Howard · Make Me a Sandwich

143

Emma Strand · Bye-Bye Bluebird

145

Jacqueline Robinson · Cake Making

147

Kristina Kjønigsen · Hush, Little Baby

155

Anne Malewski

january

157

1920s charleston

158

Tess O’Hara · To Slinky Duvet Days

159

Milanta Petkauskaite · Collage One

161

Haley Jenkins ·Greyscale

162

Megan Lewis · Some of Myself

163

Screenplays

Rosie King · A Picture of You

169

Jack Purkis · Audition #34

179

Nadia Elaissaoui · Eager for Eden

193

Creative Nonfiction

Cameron Turner · Those Aren’t Fireworks

205

Matthew Delicate · Etcetera

206

Max Blindell · Rules

209

Oana Liana Martisca · The City Between the Rivers

210

Lisa Gaultier · In Which Dragons Are Real But

219

Notes on Contributors

221