Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

Shalini is about to leave the office when her editor, Reza, who is nine years younger than she is, slaps a slim book with a black cover down on her desk and grins at her. 

“I need this reviewed by the end of the week. It’s short and shitty but I’m curious what you think,” he says. 

Andrea Appleton

Feral cats can jump as high as six feet. Juvenile mice can fit through a hole smaller than an aspirin tablet. Stoats move so quickly they can scale an electric fence between high voltage pulses and land on the other side unscathed. We have learned these things by trying to fence these animals out.

Julian Hawthorne

The study was on the third floor of the house, secluded from the turmoil of earth, so far as anything could be in a city street. No one was supposed to intrude upon him there; but such suppositions are ineffectual against children. From time to time the adamantine gates fell ajar, and in we slipped.

Kerrin McCadden

One magpie always means watch out. / One magpie in the yard means stay in the house. / Two magpies in the lane mean don’t go farther than / the roadside. / A magpie walking with its beak open, but quiet, / means go out, but come home quickly.