by Helen Ivory | Feb 9, 2022 | Featured, Prose
Pulling together Yasmin and Josef lived on Laburnum Avenue, an unremarkable suburban street where the bins were emptied on time. Yasmin and Josef felt at home but when the form from the Be a Better Neighbour! campaign arrived, Yasmin didn’t quite...
by Helen Ivory | Feb 6, 2022 | Featured, Prose
The Ominous Sweetie-Jar Ever since he was 17, Angus had been saving the tiny hairs shaved from his chin by a succession of electric razors. Now, aged 67, he had one of those old-fashioned, large, glass, sweetie-jars almost full of his own tiny...
by Leah Jun Oh | Jan 21, 2022 | Featured, Prose
Zina I remember your laugh, a cackle, irrepressible and sometimes never ending, echoing down the stairs. Wooden stairs, or were they covered in lino, scuffed by hundreds of feet up and down in that damaged old house. There were eight of us living...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 9, 2021 | Featured, Prose
Stefan We did foster care. We took in this kid. He was eight and his name was Stefan. His dad had recently died, his mum had severe mental health issues. There was a step-dad, we were told. But he belonged to us, for now. We met Stefan a couple of...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 6, 2021 | Featured, Prose
Hong Kong, China. September 2018 “Well, where did you see it last?” asks Zoo without looking up. He crushes the tiny ants that surge from behind our toaster. “The wedding,” I say. The wedding table dangles upside down outside our apartment’s...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 5, 2021 | Featured, Prose
Empty plate Sister Agostina would turn purple seeing Gloria eat in such a way: sitting on a chair with her legs against the table and the plate of spaghetti on her knees. She wolfs it down, taking big forkfuls. It feels tender and it’s tasty after...
