The fifth volume of our Uncommonalities series features stories beginning with the single word "Nobody" -- a beginning that offers authors virtually unlimited possibilities and indicates Bratum Books' hypersensitivity to complaints about constraints. Nobody is the first of the Uncommonalities volumes to enjoy grant funding, thanks to the generosity of the Catherine Cookson Foundation, so in a drastic change of pace we were able actually to pay the writers a humble fee. Contributors again represented a range of experience levels and approaches to the task, and include (in alphabetical order): Paula Blair, Julian Bond, Akemi Brodsky, Andrew Crumey, David Denton, E.R. Hamilton, Megan Hardiman, Chris Milner, Johnny Nineball, Holly North, Ellen Phethean, Chris Phillips, Pauline Plummer, Nick Ridley, J.J. Warde, and Shaun Wilson.
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The fourth volume of our Uncommonalities series features stories beginning with: "Eventually I started to get tired of waiting" -- a line that was plucked from the middle of a short story by César Aira in his Artforum collection about a man whose life revolves around waiting for his subscription to the titular magazine to arrive. Our writers did a fine job of turning it into an astounding array of very different sorts of stories, some that will make you laugh, some that will fill you with wonder, and others that just might bring a tear to your eye if you're in the right mood. Eventually contributors represent a range of experience levels and approaches to the task, and include (in alphabetical order): Amelie Baker, Akemi Brodsky, Steve Chambers, Leyla Ferrand, Mike Golding, Jess Lydia, Guy Mankowski, Stephen McGowan, Holly North, Hope O'Keeffe, John Parkes, Pauline Plummer, John Schoneboom, Kay Stewart, J.J. Warde, and Bethany Watson-Wilkes.
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The third volume of Uncommonalities comprises ten stories beginning with: "It was an accident, of course." A secondary commonality of these tales is that they all include at least one instance of a noun transformed into a complex of either adjectives or impersonal verbs, a tip of the old cap to Jorge Luis Borges and his story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." Accident includes our typically diverse range of original short stories by Jonathan Baker, James Borden, Hannah Bullimore, Steve Chambers, Jill Corvelli, Hope O'Keeffe, Walker Perreault, Pauline Plummer, John Schoneboom, and James Tucker.
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The second volume of Uncommonalities comprises another eleven stories, this time starting with the proposition "It would've been bad enough without the..." and diverging wildly from there. Bad Enough includes a diverse range of original short stories by Jonathan Baker, James Borden, Margie Vodopia Carroll, Rachael Charlotte, Pat Fish aka The Jazz Butcher, Jaz-Michael King, Guy Mankowski, Hope O'Keeffe, John Schoneboom, James Tucker, and Kay Wilson.
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This first Uncommonalities volume is now, with the publication of a second edition, under the Bratum Books imprint where it belongs. Eleven short stories begin together and then go in eleven different directions with eleven different authors. A Taste For It is the first volume in the Uncommonalities series of short stories that share a common first sentence but are otherwise wildly divergent. Variously hilarious and poignant, these tales confront the tastes for -- among other things -- death, time travel, addiction, and just plain not giving a damn. Featuring original short stories by Jill Corvelli, Dirk Flinthart, Melissa Lee-Houghton, Matthew O'Grady, Hope O'Keeffe, Philip Pelletier, John Schoneboom, Christi Sperry, James Tucker, Andrew Wilkinson, and Kay Wilson.
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