The short stories explore the complications faced by Africans in living the postcolonial experience, especially as it directly impacts the African world, its peoples and their sometimes ``complicated'' lifestyles. The narratives capture not only the angst of seeking meaning in a world that challenges wholeness for African communities and individuals but, above all, look at ways of retrieval of cultural/ancestral knowledge in authenticating themselves.

Ever since he moved out of the house, Wednesday has become Simons favorite day of the week. It is the day he picks up his fourteen-year-old daughter, Leni, from school, drives her to her piano lessons, and enjoys a post-lesson weekly dinner ritual with her. But one Wednesday after he drops Leni at home, Simon suddenly has a foreboding feeling that something is wrong and is subsequently led down a path he never could have imagined. In thirteen poignant and compelling stories filled with a varied cast of characters including Billie Holiday and a thinly disguised Paul Newman, Neil Isaacs shares a glimpse into the high and low points in the lives of lovers and loners, siblings and spouses, and families and neighbors. From Marthas Vineyard to Aruba and the Caymans and from Boston to New York and San Antonio, his characters face life-changing moments and learn valuable lessons while dealing with lifes unpredictable challenges. One Thing and Another and Other Stories shares short tales that reveal the quirks and flaws of human nature and prove that we are all more alike than different.

I remember Syl and Other Stories is a collection of dark stories set in West Africa. Valentine Umelo won the BBC African Performance Playwriting competition in 2002 with his radio play 'Knight in Shining Armour'. He also won a UNESCO residency award for his short story writing at the Ranieri Civetelli Institute in Umbra, Italy in 2006.

Frank has always enjoyed writing stories based on his travels throughout Canada. His style incorporates realism with a wry sense of humour. Short stories are Frank’s way of capturing snapshots of the fascinating experiences he has encountered throughout his life.

Y? Gorógoró Yaa: Dagaare Folktales in Parallel Texts is a relevant book on Dagaare oral literature and complements earlier works. The most innovative feature of the book is the application of Parallel Text Theory in the organisation and translation of the folktales. This satisfies both foreign and local readers who speak and write Dagaare. The book will revive research interest among Dagaaba scholars and reveal more about the nature of Dagaaba Oral Traditions and the rich cultural and traditional values of the Dagaaba of West Africa. Y? Gorógoró Yaa: Dagaaba Sensell? P?retaa tori ne la ba Yelkããyelli nang wa paale danw?? deme puori. A gane nga y?mpaalaa kpongi la o nang de p?retaa tieori kp? ne a sensell? wuobu ane a le?roo po?. A ngaa na kyaane la nembolle ane tembiiri gangkanema zaa nang wono ky? kanna Dagaare ninge. A gane na senge la Dagaaba ganzanne karegyugiri pe?repe?reb? g?nzuuro ane enno? po? ky? maaleng yuo y?l? yaga nang be ba ban??y?l? ane ba yip?ge esonne nang be a Afereka Luou s?ng nga. Mark Ali is a Lecturer in Dagaare at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Adams Bodomo is a Professor of Afrcan Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria

Exploring widely diverse settings-from the wilds of the Australian Outback to urban adventures to biblical lands-this collection of short stories, poems, and other writings celebrates what it is to be Australian. It encompasses love, revenge, debauchery, wonder, loss, and uncertainty, but a common thread of hope emerges from the colourful and eccentric writings of bush author Fairbanks. An elder Aboriginal storyteller regales a group of eager tourists with an ancient story of betrayal, loss, and clever deception by "The Old Man in the Mountain." In "Tjamiti Ngunytji," an American youth is rescued by a character living in a remote outback Aboriginal community. After the devastating Black Saturday Bushfire destroyed his Victoria home and manuscripts, Fairbanks was inspired to capture the fleeting reflections of such an experience in "The Smouldering Stump." Life is, has always been, and will continue to be a complex thing, shaped by friendship and love bonds, ugliness and conflict, anticipation and uncertainty, comedy and joy, tragedy, mystery, and more. Above all, there is hope and beauty for those who look for it. The Old Man in the Mountain and Other Stories celebrates the many threads in the colourful tapestry of life with the quirky, sometimes irreverent Aussie sense of humour.

All human beings struggle to live with our own missteps and transgressions and those of others. In this compelling collection, stories with the depth and resonance of novellas offer a window into the challenging lives of contemporary men and women. From Alec and Mira, children of an unreliable mother, to Naomi and Graham, suburbanites who enter the wilderness of an affair-and finally to Trevor, a psychiatrist who is himself a "wounded healer"-Orbach presents a kaleidoscope of hopes, desires, longings and regrets of people as diverse as they are familiar-people whose quandaries, whether ordinary or extreme, resonate with our own. When Laura, a young widow, responds "just for now" to a man who is blind, she is drawn in by his compassionate voice. Matthew, trying to wall himself off from the dangers of deep emotion, finds his underlying fears exposed. Sharon, lunching with an ex-lover, commits a small but telling gesture of revenge. Jess, trying to remake her life, struggles to survive the cost to her children and herself. And Martin, involved in a tragic accident, tries in vain to avoid acknowledging the cost of his own shortcomings. These are men and women seeking love, possibility, compassion-and most of all the self-forgiveness needed to embrace the future.

In our media-saturated world, the line between reality and fiction has grown thinner and more confusing. With sharp, clear prose and an insider's view of the media, Petrick's stories take us into a hall of mirrors where men and women struggle to understand themselves and their relationships with one another. In a climate defined by images, does love stand a chance when no one is certain what is real? In the title story, an accomplished skydiver goes airborne with a video camera to capture the love of his life, but a small oversight upends his best intentions. In "Sins of the Father," a man arriving in Huntsville, Texas, to commute his son's death sentence clashes with a documentary producer intent on chasing the story to its bitter end. In "Telling Time," a corporate video producer, conflicted by his own immoral conduct, learns that sometimes the absolute truth is the most effective lie.

Claudia Lopez waits for her husband at Newark International Airport, unaware that he's gone into hiding in the wake of a botched drug deal. Now, eight hours after completing the long flight from Bolivia with their infant daughter, she's stranded in the bustling arrivals building, wondering what to do next. At first, Margot Fortune, the elegant and sympathetic woman who offers her a ride to Manhattan, appears to be her salvation. Claudia will discover that appearances can be deceiving. Her world will be turned upside-down when, adrift in an unforgiving city, she's threatened with the kidnapping of her baby if she fails to pay back her husband's drug debt. As Claudia desperately searches for a way out of her nightmare, Margot leads her on a harrowing tour of the Big Apple's dark underbelly and into the shadowy world of high-priced prostitution, drugs and violence.

Publisher’s Weekly hailed the “wit and subtlety” in Gerald Duff’s fiction as “simply satisfying as a tall cold one on a hot Gulf Coast afternoon,” and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazetter said “Gerald Duff’s dialogue is among the best being written, and his sense of the absurd is Portis-like.” This new collection of short stories by the author of Coasters (2001) features the Ploughshares Cohen Prize-winning story “Fire Ants.”