Five by Five: Short Stories

by Katy Darby, Joan Taylor-Rowan, Sarah James

A showcase for authors Arachne Press has published previously in anthologies, giving a wider perspective on their writing. The collection as a whole has tendency towards fantasy and magical realism, with Cassandra Passarelli’s (Liberty Tales) Guatemalan stories taking on a more gritty reality, and Katy Darby’s (London Lies, Stations, Shortest Day, Longest Night) engrossing SF and historical stories alongside Joan Taylor Rowan’s (London Lies, Lover's Lies, Stations) acid humour and modern desperation and Sarah James’ (Longest Day, Shortest Night) elliptical poet’s sensibility brought to flash fiction and Helen Morris’ (Liberty Tales, Solstice Shorts) ability to get to the heart of a story, and make you laugh out loud or weep inconsolably.

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 20, 2018

About the author

Katy Darby studied English Literature at Somerville College, Oxford and took her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she received the David Higham Award.

Her fiction has been read on BBC Radio, and she has published stories in magazines including Slice, Mslexia and The London Magazine, as well as winning prizes in several international fiction competitions (Fish, Arvon and Bridport, among others). Her first novel, The Whores' Asylum, was published by Fig Tree (Penguin) in February 2012.

She teaches Short Story Writing and Novel Writing at City University and co-runs the monthly live fiction event Liars' League. She lives in London.