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Bracket

A New Generation in Fiction

Edited by Ra Page

Cover Picture of Bracket: An Anthology of Short Stories
Categories: 21st Century, Anthologies, British
Imprint: Comma Press
Publisher: Comma Press
Available as:
  • Description
  • Editor
  • Awards
  • Reviews
  • Featuring
    Patrick Belshaw, Tom Palmer, Fiona Ritchie Walker, Zoe Lambert, Sarah Tierney, Char March, Tim Cooke, Rory Miller, Emma Unsworth, Philip Hughes, Adam Maxwell, Sara Heitlinger, Maria Roberts, Penny Anderson, Mario Petrucci, Sheena Brabazon, Jaime Campbell, Annie Kirby, Penny Feeney & David Lambert

    The latest in Comma’s acclaimed series of short story anthologies, Bracket brings together 20 of the country’s most promising, previously unpublished writers. From the cliffs of Flamborough Head to high rise, inner city madness; from lost loves to the last days of civilisation - the settings and scenarios in these stories captivate and unsettle in equal measure, all the time striving for that most unlikely modern thing, intimacy.
    Ra Page is the founder and Editorial Manager of Comma Press. He’s the editor of numerous anthologies, including The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin, 1999), co-editor of The New Uncanny (winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, 2008) and Litmus, voted one of 2011’s books of the year ... read more
    Awards won by Ra Page Winner, 2012  Financial Times Book of the Year
    (Shi Cheng)
    'An agreeably accomplished collection populated, as promised, by some intriguing characters.'
    City Life
    'Get with the zeitgeist and buy yourself a copy of Bracket.'
    Leeds Guide
    'Fills you with hope for the form.'
    Time Out
    'Short fiction is in good hands.'
    The Independent
    Praise for Ra Page 'Read this book.'
    Liz Lochhead
     'If we need the uncanny --and I suspect we do -- then we also need it updating... laudable.'
    Book of the Week, The Independent
    'A masterclass in understated creepiness... a deliciously macabre collection that the old Austrian might well have enjoyed.'
    Book of the Week, Time Out
    'Delightful and disturbing.'
    The Independent on Sunday
     'It's not too great a stretch to see Comma as the literary equivalent of Factory Records.'
    The Herald
    'An inspiring tribute to inquiring minds.'
    The Guardian
    'A very alive, illuminating and good-natured collection.'
    The Observer
    'The pairings work brilliantly, giving stereoscopic vision... ingenious... unfailingly interesting.'
    The Independent
    'Exquisite... delectable.'
    New Scientist
    'There is something about the defiance of language in this story.'
    China Daily
    'On balance, [the editors] perform a valu­able service in making these rich, varied and rewarding stories known to a western audience, for all that the politics of cultural engagement remain fraught.'
    Financial Times
    'These stories tell us how the lives of these cities and citizens, or peasants-turned-citizens, are being tempered. The stories seem to say that one has to go through the fires of hell to reach some different stage of existence.'
    The Independent
    'Shi Cheng is a sort of mind map of both modern China, and also of what it’s like to be human.'
    Asian Books Blog
    'An exhilarating read.'
    The Short Review 
    'Fascinating reading.'
    Financial Times
    'It might have been of interest to these pre-Mansfield masters to learn that there was a hidden country of prose out there; great short story writers, then and now, create countries of their own.'
    Michael Caines writing about Morphologies in the TLS blog
    'A worthy addition to the immense collection of criticism.'
    The Guardian
    'Works brilliantly... ingenious... unfailingly interesting.'
    The Independent, Book of the Week
    'Exquisite... delectable'
    New Scientist.
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