Category: Emerging Writers

Smoking kills (the story of a happy yet unlucky man) by  Clara Herrero Hernández

He smoked a lot during his first days in Germany. He smoked whilst he created a network of other foreign workers like him. He made good friends there, who he would play cards with and would go to watch Real Madrid play. He learned bits of various languages between puffs and sent money home and saved his own. He returned home to do his year of military service, where he was so well liked that they assigned him to be the chauffeur for some officials, and there too, he smoked, played cards, and told jokes. He had become the coffee machine, exhaling smoke, and providing comfort and encouragement.

Fumar Mata (la historia de un hombre feliz sin suerte) de Clara Herrero Hernández

Fumó mucho los primeros días en Alemania, mientras formaba una comunidad de otros trabajadores extranjeros como él. Hizo buenos amigos allí, con los que jugaba a las cartas e iba a ver jugar al Madrid cuando iban a Alemania. Aprendió algo de varios idiomas entre calada y calada, mandó dinero a casa y ahorró el propio. Volvió para cumplir su año en la mili, donde cayó tan bien que lo destinaron a ser el chófer de algunos oficiales, y allí también fumó y jugó a las cartas y contó chistes. Se había convertido él en la cafetera, que echaba humo y consuelo y ánimo.

Swans in the Mediterranean by Pedro Gutiérrez Ubero

I thought about my great-grandfather when I leaped into the water from the overhanging deck of the Costa Concordia. It was night, it was winter (the Cruise ship Costa Concordia ran around just off the island of Giglio at 21:42 on the 13th of January 2012) and my first thought was to find out if the water was too cold.

usir, by teresa garanhel

‘I remember the ocean was as flat as the ship’s deck when the masters appeared. I saw their flag, but at the time I didn’t know what it meant. You know the one, white and red. We were all so scared. I understood later it was the Cross of the Order of Christ, the Empire’s divine right to the spice trade. We were coming from India when they sunk the ship, but not before putting me and a few others in crates.’ A sigh. ‘My sarcophagus. I was reborn inside it.’

Manual mode, by anthony López Get

For those who can afford it, there’s a whole new market of fancy devices that connect to your phone or smart watch and register your breathing patterns, send you alarms, remind you to refill your oxygen tank, locate the nearest Oxygen Station, alert your emergency contacts if you collapse; they got you covered. Martha knows them very well. She was moved to the smart respirator department six months ago and has been selling them ever since.

an extract from ‘nakadai’, by walker zupp

The young Nakadai studies Neo-Linguistics at the University of Twickley, serves in the Japanese army, becomes a Benedictine monk, then receives the chair of Professor of Neo-Linguistics at Twickley where, despite his relectuance, he is heralded as the greatest philosophical mind of the age.