A new short story by acclaimed author David Constantine on the fall of The Paris Commune.

A story in two parts: Part I tells the story of The Paris Commune itself from a grassroots perspective, and will be of interest to those familiar and unfamiliar with what Marx called a "civil war" in France.

Part II follows an academic living in Paris, obsessed with the events of The Paris Commune, haunted by the atrocities of 'bloody week', when the men and women who took part in the revolutionary government were slaughtered in their hundreds on the streets of the city. She meets another young woman and her children, similarly stalked by the past, and trying to make a new life in Paris during the pandemic.

Living in Hope by David Constantine - Part 1

Living in Hope by David Constantine - Part 2

Comma's Zoë Turner talks to BBC National Short Story Award 2021 winner Lucy Caldwell about her writing process, short stories and poetry, this year's BBC NSSA shortlist, and what makes a good writer.

An interview with BBC NSSA 2021 winner Lucy Caldwell

Award-winning author David Constantine discusses his latest collection of mesmerising short fiction

David Constantine: Rivers of the Unspoilt World

An elderly adopts strange coping mechanisms to cope with the loneliness of Christmas during lockdown.

'Surge' by Gaia Holmes

The old year lingers as a guest who has outstayed their welcome in this short story from Gaia Holmes' collection: He Used to do Dangerous Things.

'The Old Year' by Gaia Holmes

Author Sandra Alland reads her story 'Kick-Start' from the Protest: Stories of Resistance anthology, published by Comma Press. The story focuses on the National Blind March of 1920, a protest which involved 250 blind men setting out from Manchester, Leeds and Newport on a march to London. The historical consultant on the story was Francis Salt.

Purchase the paperback edition of Protest from commapress.co.uk.

Sandra Alland - 'Kick-Start' from Protest: Stories of Resistance

Hosted by Ra Page, Founder & CEO of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story. 

Juliet Jacques is a journalist, critic and writer of short fiction. She has published two books including Trans: A Memoir (2015). She documented her gender reassignment for The Guardian in a series entitled A Transgender Journey. 

Dr. Em Temple-Malt is a Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at Staffordshire University and co-director of Staffordshire University Crime and Society Research Group.

Louise Wallwein MBE is an award-winning poet, playwright and performer. Born in Withington Hospital and brought up in 13 different children's homes, she produced her first play at the age of 17 with Contact Theatre. Her notable commissions include the poem for the opening of the Olympics in the North, Skid 180 at Contact Theatre and Dirty White Girl for BBC Radio 3. Her plays have been broadcast by the BBC and have graced the stage of the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Exchange Theatre. She has made over 20 films with young people around the UK, with Fall winning Best Film at the BFI Awards 2015.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles. 

Notes:

1) Protest: Stories of Resistance is available from commapress.co.uk and in all good retailers (in paperback and hardback).
2) A recording of Juliet Jacques reading her story, 'Never Going Underground' from Protest, is available on our Soundcloud. 
3) Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin by Susanne Bosche
4) 'Lesbians abseil into House of Lords', 2nd Feb 1988: https://bit.ly/2DxWnwd
5) Section 28 demo in Manchester, 20th Feb 1988 (video credit Nick Langley): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbNig5ZNgTE
6) Clause 28 Manchester march banner (photo credit Getty Images): https://bit.ly/2B59Dqs
7) Clause 29 Manchester Albert Square rally, Manchester Evening News: https://bit.ly/2FeIQcn
8) Viraj Mendis: https://bit.ly/2DykTxq
9) James Anderton, Greater Manchester Police Chief (Telegraph article, 2012): https://bit.ly/2S23TYr
10) Brian Souter and the Stagecoach boycott (BBC News, 2000): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/744503.stm
11) Queer As Folk, Channel 4: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/queer-as-folk
12) Clause 28 protest, Manchester Archives+ blog: https://bit.ly/2MrCBsn
13)Never Going Underground banner at the People's History Museum, Manchester (Creative Boom): https://bit.ly/2sNqvxo
14) Catherine MacKinnon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharine_MacKinnon
15) The Killing of Sister George (1968 film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063185/
16) TERF (definition): https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TERF
17) Pride (2014 film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/
18) Pastor Niemoller, 'First they came...' (poem): https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/first-they-came-for-the-jews/
19) Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants: http://www.lgsmigrants.com/
20) Germaine Greer, 'Transgender women are "not women" (BBC News, 2015): https://bbc.in/2TjIPtX
21)Christine Jorgensen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Jorgensen
22) Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (Stonewall): https://www.stonewall.org.uk/gender-recognition-act
23) The Albert Kennedy Trust: https://www.akt.org.uk/
24) Stone Butch Blues (1993 novel)
25) Russia's 'Gay Propaganda' Law' (Human Rights Watch): https://bit.ly/2sNZHNK
26) Chechnya concentration camps (The Guardian, 2018): https://bit.ly/2JphOk1
27) Peter Tatchell protests in Russia (The Independent, 2018): https://ind.pn/2tbWuHm

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

1.1 Never Going Underground with Juliet Jacques, Em Temple-Malt and Louise Wallwein

Hosted by Ra Page, Founder & CEO of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story. In this episode author David Constantine and his brother, historian Stephen Constantine, reflect on their experience and the legacy of Enoch Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech, as well as post World War II immigration, Windrush, Brexit and Trump… 

David Constantine is an award-winning poet, translator, short story writer and novelist. His short story collections include Under the Dam (2005), The Shieling (2009) and Tea at the Midland (2012), which won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the title story of which won the BBC National Short Story Award 2010. His second novel The Life-Writer (2014) was one of the New York Times' Top 100 Books of 2016 and in the same year a feature film based on 'In Another Country', titled 45 Years, received an Oscar nomination for star Charlotte Rampling.

Stephen Constantine was appointed as a lecturer at Lancaster University in 1971 and retired in 2010 as Professor of Modern British History, while retaining an active research interest in empire and migration.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Notes:
1)	Protest: Stories of resistance (Comma Press, 2017) https://commapress.co.uk/books/protest-stories-of-resistance-1 
2)	‘After Enoch Powell’, BBC resources https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/after_enoch_powell 
3)	‘Fifty years on…’ , The Observer, 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/14/enoch-powell-rivers-blood-legacy-wolverhampton 
4)	Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech [full text], The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html 
5)	Kropotkin
6)	Jus soli – ‘right of the soil’ 
7)	Race Relations Act 1965
8)	Race Relations Act 1968 
9)	‘And I Always Thought’ by Bertolt Brecht http://apoemaday.tumblr.com/post/114144779832/and-i-always-thought 
10)	Rainer Maria Rilke (The Poetry Foundation) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rainer-maria-rilke 
11)	‘Hidden in milk cans’ (The Jewish Historical Institute) http://www.jhi.pl/en/blog/2014-05-09-hidden-in-milk-cans 
12)	Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse www.iicsa.org.uk 
13)	Thai cave rescue, BBC 2018 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44695232

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

1.2 Rivers of Blood With David Constantine and Stephen Constantine

Hosted by Ra Page, Founder & CEO of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Martyn Bedford is an award-winning British novelist and literary critic. he has written five novels for adults and three for young adults. His short story collection, Letters Home, was published by Comma Press in 2017.

David Waddington is Professor of Communications and Co-Director of the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. He continues to publish widely on the policing of public order, industrial relations in the coalfields, and the sociology of Britain's mining communities.

Craig Oldham is a British designer. He is the founder of indie press Common Practices and Creative Director of Rough Trade Books, as well as a Campaigner for the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

1)	Protest stories of resistance https://commapress.co.uk/books/protest-stories-of-resistance-1 
2)	Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign https://otjc.org.uk/ 
3)	 ‘The charge of the heavy bridge’ by Tristram Hunt in The Guardian, 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2006/sep/04/features5
4)	‘The scandal of Orgreave’ in The Guardian, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/18/scandal-of-orgreave-miners-strike-hillsborough-theresa-may
5)	Arthur Scargill and the Battle of Saltley Gate (BBC, 2012) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-16982257 
6)	In Loving Memory of Work: a visual record of the UK miners’ strike 1984-85 https://www.inlovingmemoryofwork.com/ 
7)	Thatcher government policing tactics (Telegraph, 2017) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/09/margaret-thatchers-government-feared-miners-strike-inquiry-would/ 
8)	‘The lies binding Hillsborough to the battle of Orgreave’ by Ken Capstick in The Guardian, 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/05/lies-bind-hillsborough-battle-orgreave 
9)	Bristol riots of 1831 
10)	1986 Wapping dispute, The Independent, 2016 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/wapping-dispute-30-years-on-how-rupert-murdoch-changed-labour-relations-and-newspapers-forever-a6826316.html
11)	‘Orgreave families: we want full, Hillsborough-style inquiry’ The Observer, 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/29/orgreave-families-hillsborough-style-inquiry 
12)	David Waddington’s publications archive (Sheffield Hallam) http://shura.shu.ac.uk/view/cv/d=2Ep=2Ewaddington=40shu=2Eac=2Euk.html 
13)	Billy Elliot (2000 film)  
14)	Pride (2014 film) 
15)	Jeremy Deller – The Battle of Orgreave http://www.jeremydeller.org/TheBattleOfOrgreave/TheBattleOfOrgreave_Video.php 
16)	Celebrating the unsung heroes of the miners’ strike (The Conversation) http://theconversation.com/we-are-women-we-are-strong-celebrating-the-unsung-heroines-of-the-miners-strike-92448
17)	Lesley Boulton and the iconic photo of Orgreave (BBC Sheffield) http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2009/03/02/lesley_boulton_orgreave_photo_feature.shtml 
18)	‘Rock on Tommy’ by Martin Jenkinson, The Guardian, 2012 (obituary) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jul/01/martin-jenkinson-obituary 
19)	‘Brixton riots - in pictures’, The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/brixton-riots-in-pictures-2266287.html

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Disclaimer: Please forgive some vibration/static in this recording due to some passionate fist banging on the table, also the host’s pesky cough! Also please tune in next week when we will have an ALL FEMALE PANEL.

1.3 The Enemy Within with Martyn Bedford, David Waddington and Craig Oldham

Hosted by Zoe Turner, Publicity & Outreach Officer of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Michelle Green is a British-Canadian writer. Her short story collection, Jebel Marra, was published by Comma Press and is based on her own experience as an aid worker in Darfur.

Elizabeth Crawford is the author of The Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide 1866-1928 (1998), The Women's Suffrage Movement: a regional survey (2013) and much more. 

Helen Antrobus is a museum curator and historian. She is former programme officer at the People's History Museum and is one of the hosts of the F' Yeah History podcast, 

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Notes:
1.	The Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage https://spartacus-educational.com/WmanchesterS.htm
2.	The Free Trade Hall Meeting  https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/free-trade-hall-meeting-13-october-1905-the-beginning-of-the-militant-campaign-for-votes-for-women/
3.	The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Social-and-Political-Union
4.	1910 Conciliation Bill https://spartacus-educational.com/Conciliation.htm
5.	1913 Male Suffrage Bill https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/britain1906to1918/usefulnotes/g4cs3s4u.htm
6. 1913 Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act, popularly known as the Cat and Mouse Act https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/unesco/cat-and-mouse-act/
7.	Emily Davison http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davison_emily.shtml
8.	Art and Suffrage https://francisboutle.co.uk/products/art-and-suffrage/
9.	 Represent! Voices 100 Years On exhibition  https://phm.org.uk/exhibitions/represent-voices-100-years-on/
10.	The 1981 Irish hunger strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike
11.	Can one do evil without being evil? https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil
12.	Selina Martin  http://selina-martin.blogspot.com/p/time-as-suffragette.html -
13.	100-year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act in 2018  https://celebratingvotesforwomen.campaign.gov.uk/
14. Annie Kenney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Kenney
15. Preface to 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman  - https://www.bartleby.com/39/45.html
16. Rhoda Garrett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Garrett
17. Lady Constance Lytton http://www.historiamag.com/lady-constance-lytton-suffragette/
18. Hannah Mitchell  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Mitchell
19. Lucy Minnie Baldock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Baldock
20.	 David Lloyd George on women and the war (1918) https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/aug/22/women-first-world-war-lloyd-george
21. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the suffragists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_of_Women%27s_Suffrage_Societies
22. Women Asylum Seekers Together in Greater Manchester.
https://www.wastmanchester.com/
23. Stand by your trans https://happyvalleypride.com/news/stand-by-your-trans/
24. Intersectionality/intersectional feminism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

1.4 Cat and Mouse Act with Michelle Green, Elizabeth Crawford and Helen Antrobus

Hosted by Ra Page of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Stuart Evers is the author of a number of novels and short story collections, and writes about books regularly for The Guardian, The Independent and The Observer.

Michael Randle has been involved in peace work as an activist and academic since registering as a conscientious objector to military service in 1952. He was a member of the Aldermaston March Committee which organised the first March at Easter 1958. He has a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford.

Mai Chatham was born in London but now lives in Manchester. She joined CND in 1957, influenced by her parents who were founder members of the Chingford branch. She joined them on the first Aldermaston march & subsequently founded the Chingford YCND group & was on the YCND national committee. She has been involved in non-violent direct action & arrested several times and also served a very short prison sentence. She’s still active in my local peace group & a member of CND.  

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Notes:
1)	Gandhi’s Salt March https://www.history.com/news/gandhis-salt-march-85-years-ago 
2)	The CND Logo https://cnduk.org/the-cnd-logo/
3)	Peace News https://www.peacenews.info/
4)	Harry Mister https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/06/guardianobituaries.politics
5)	Suez Crisis https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis 
6)	Partisan Coffee House https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/cafe-cnd-new-left
7)	New Left Review https://newleftreview.org/
8)	Hugh Brock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Brock
9)	Children of Hiroshima (1952 film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044497/
10)	Pat Arrowsmith https://cnduk.org/60-faces-pat-arrowsmith/
11)	Anti-Polaris demos at Holy Loch https://cnduk.org/peoples-history-of-cnd-protesting-on-holy-loch/
12)	‘The Blind Light’ by Stuart Evers (single story eBook) https://amzn.to/2GewFwO
13)	Spies for Peace http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/civildisobedience/spiesforpeace/spiesforpeace.html
14)	Committee of 100 https://cnduk.org/peoples-history-of-cnd-the-committee-of-100/
15)	War Resisters International https://www.wri-irg.org/en
16)	March to Aldermaston (1959 film) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/533592/index.html
17)	Eliza Manningham-Buller https://www.mi5.gov.uk/eliza-manningham-buller-baroness-manningham-buller
18)	Stansted 15 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/16/migrants-deportation-stansted-actvists
19)	Faslane 365 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/02/nuclear.scotland
20)	Youth protests against climate change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2019/mar/15/climate-strikes-2019-live-latest-climate-change-global-warming
21)	The Coming War on China by John Pilger (2016 film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6197028/

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

1.5 The Aldermaston Marches with Stuart Evers, Michael Randle and Mai Chatham

Hosted by Ra Page of Comma Press, a Manchester-based independent publisher specialising in the short story.

Jacob Ross is a novelist, short story writer, editor and creative writing tutor. His crime fiction novel, The Bone Readers won the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017. His latest book is Tell No-One About This, a collection of stories written over a span of forty years, and more than a dozen new ones. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards. Jacob is Associate Fiction Editor at Peepal Tree Press, and the editor of Closure, Contemporary Black British short stories. Jacob is the author of 'Bed 45', a short story inspired by the New Cross Fire and following unrest included in the Protest: Stories of resistance anthology.

Stephen Reicher is a professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an academician of the social sciences. Broadly his research interests include the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship. He is currently working on a Leverhulme funded project (jointly with Nick Hopkins of Lancaster University) looking at the impact of devolution on Scottish identity and social action in Scotland.

Published in 2017, Protest: Stories of Resistance assembled twenty authors to re-imagine key moments of British protest from the last eight centuries. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eye-witnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles.

Note: Sorry about some sound quality issues in the first 10 mins and one of the guests having a cold!

1.	Protest: Stories of Resistance https://commapress.co.uk/books/protest-stories-of-resistance-1
2.	New Cross Fire http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_2530000/2530333.stm
3.	Linton Kwesi Johnson
4.	'Bed 45' single story eBook https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bed-45-story-Brixton-Singles-ebook/dp/B079LQ14JC/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=bed+45&qid=1563268987&s=digital-text&sr=1-4
5.	Black People’s Day of Action https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/fight-racism/4337-ao200516
6.	Brixton Riot 1981 - https://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/april-11-1981-brixton-riots-leave-more-than-300-people-injured-11363974876698
7.	Swamp 81 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4854556.stm
8.	Kettling - confinement by police of a group of demonstrators or protesters in a small area, as a method of crowd control.
9.	Nottingham Riots (1976) http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/august-30-1976-racial-tensions-run-high-as-notting-hill-carnival-ends-in-riots-11364000534127
10.	Mark Duggan and the Tottenham Riots (2011) https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest
11.	The Scarman Report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3631579.stm
12.	Stephen Lawrence and the Macpherson report https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/22/macpherson-report-what-was-it-and-what-impact-did-it-have
13.	Brixton 1981 & Tottenham 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/09/tottenham-2011-brixton-1981
14.	Food poverty in modern Britain https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/21/britain-hunger-food-poverty
15.	C. L. R. James 
16.	St Paul’s Riots (1980) https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/st-pauls-riots-37-years-17634

Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

1.6 The New Cross Fire & Brixton Riots with Jacob Ross and Stephen Reicher

Taken from Adam Marek's acclaimed short story collection, Instruction Manual for Swallowing, which explores what happens when ordinary people collide with bizarre, fantastical situations.

Adam Marek reads 'Testicular Cancer VS The Behemoth'

Taken from Hitting Trees with Sticks, the debut collection from author Jane Rogers.

Praise for Jane Rogers:
‘There is nothing predictable about a Jane Rogers story. She has the confidence and skill to inhabit many different voices and different worlds. She slides the reader, in imagination, to a snow-bound France, to Africa, to the Caribbean: she takes us into offices and libraries, under the sea and into the forest, and also into the vast untrodden country of memory that we carry around inside. Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating.’ – Hilary Mantel 

'Thrilling, ambitious stories that cross continents and soar from cells to stars.' – Maggie Gee 

‘Warm, wise, insightful, sharply observed and beautifully written – each story is a world in microcosm.’ – Marina Lewycka 

'A fitting nod to the glory of fiction.' - The Guardian

'Lucky' by Jane Rogers

Adam Marek reads 'The Forty Litre Monkey'

Read by Jim Hinks.

Taken from the collection, The Shieling.

'The Beginning' by David Constantine

Taken from the collection, Under the Dam, by award-winning author David Constantine. Read by the author.

Uner the Dam

David Constantine reads 'The Loss'

Taken from Hitting Trees with Sticks, the debut collection from author Jane Rogers.

Praise for Jane Rogers:
‘There is nothing predictable about a Jane Rogers story. She has the confidence and skill to inhabit many different voices and different worlds. She slides the reader, in imagination, to a snow-bound France, to Africa, to the Caribbean: she takes us into offices and libraries, under the sea and into the forest, and also into the vast untrodden country of memory that we carry around inside. Her observation of our species is tender, precise, illuminating.’ – Hilary Mantel

'Thrilling, ambitious stories that cross continents and soar from cells to stars.' – Maggie Gee

‘Warm, wise, insightful, sharply observed and beautifully written – each story is a world in microcosm.’ – Marina Lewycka

'A fitting nod to the glory of fiction.' - The Guardian

Jane Rogers reads 'Conception'

Read by Penelope Macdonald. Taken from the Comma anthology, Decapolis: Tales from Ten Cities.

Decapolis is a book which imagines the city otherwise. Bringing together ten writers from across Europe, it offers snapshots of their native cities, freezing for a moment the characters and complexities that define them.

'The Four Hundred Pleats' by Amanda Michaelpoulou

The first episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast introduces the theme of this new series - FUTURES. 

In this opening episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with esteemed sci-fi writer Adam Roberts, the University of York's Amanda Rees who is currently researching the history of the future, and MMU's own Amy Chambers, who specialises in film and visual culture.

Show notes: 
1.	Iraq +100
2.	The John Wyndham Archive https://libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca/wyndham
3.	The Stanley Kubrick Archive https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/special-collections-and-archives/archives-and-special-collections-centre/the-stanley-kubrick-archive 
4.	Star Trek (the original series)
5.	Dr Lisa Garforth https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/lisagarforth.html#background
6.	Star Trek: Discovery 
7.	Doctor Who 
8.	Joan Haran’s ‘Imaginactivism’ https://adanewmedia.org/2017/10/issue12-haran/ 
9.	Fredric Jameson
10.	Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
11.	Logan (2017)
12.	The Twilight Zone
13.	It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
14.	The Fractured Europe Series by Dave Hutchinson
15.	Men in Black (1997)
16.	Starship Troopers (1997)
17.	Jules Verne
18.	H. G. Wells
19.	Patrick Moore sparks UNESCO debate 
20.	Unsettling Scientific Stories http://unsettlingscientificstories.co.uk 
21.	Black Panther (2018)
22.	Captain Marvel (2019)
23.	The Big Bang Theory
24.	Mae Jemison

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

2.1 The History of the Future with Adam Roberts, Amanda Rees & Amy Chambers

The third episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Palestine + 100: Stories from a century after the Nakba, the first ever collection of science fiction from Palestine. Guest in this episode are Palestinian author and journalist Rawan Yaghi, editor of the anthology and translator Basma Ghalayini, Barbara Dick who holds a doctorate from Durham University on Modern Arabic Science Fiction and Lancaster University's Lindsey Moore, who specialises in post-1948 literature of the Arab world within postcolonial studies.

Show notes:
1.	47SOUL – Gamar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yECo9LBojZo
2.	The Second War of the Dog by Ibrahim Nasrallah https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/25/ibrahim-nasrallah-wins-arabic-fiction-prize-novel-dystopian-extremists-second-war-of-the-dog
3.	The Secret Lift of Saeed the Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Saeed:_The_Pessoptimist
4.	Rhetorics of Belonging by Dr Anna Bernard https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjk1v
5.	Larissa Sansour (Space Exodus) http://www.larissasansour.com/exodus.html
6.	The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190612-the-book-of-disappearance/
7.	Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi https://oneworld-publications.com/frankenstein-in-baghdad.html
8.	Mustafa Mahmoud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Mahmoud
9.	Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/utopia-by-ahmed-khaled-towfik-6132395.html
10.	Gaza Writes Back https://justworldbooks.com/books-by-title/gaza-writes-back/
11.	The Book of Gaza (Comma Press) https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-gaza/
12.	The Lord Arrived from the Spinach Field by Sabri Moussa
13.	The 99 comic book series by Naif Al-Mutawa
14.	Arablit.org

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

2.3 Palestine + 100 with Rawan Yaghi, Lindsey Moore, Barbara Dick & Basma Ghalayini

The second episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES. 

In this episode, Comma Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with contributors and academics about Comma's best-selling anthology, Iraq + 100: Stories from a century after the invasion, the first ever collection of science fiction from Iraq, edited by the award-winning author Hassan Blasim. Guest in this episode are Iraqi author Anoud (pseudonym), Sinead Murphy, who holds a PhD in contemporary Arab science fiction in English translation, and Annie Webster, a Wolfson PhD candidate at SOAS working on post-2003 Iraqi literature.

Show notes: 
1.	Iraq +100
2.	Hassan Blasim – The Iraqi Christ
3.	Kahramana
4.	Banthology
5.	South Park
6.	1001 Nights
7.	The Palestinian Novel by Bashir Abu-Manneh
8.	BBC Two’s Civilisations – S1E1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xxsmp
9.	H. G. Wells – The Shape of Things to Come
10.	“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.” – George Orwell
11.	Ahmed Khaled Towfik – Utopia
12.	Palestine +100
13.	An interview with Saleem Haddad (Palestine +100) on OpenDemocracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/reimagining-palestine-future-interview-saleem-haddad/ 
14.	Sinan Antoon – The Book of Collateral Damage
15.	Hassan Blasim – The Corpse Exhibition (Penguin North America) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/313242/the-corpse-exhibition-by-hassan-blasim/9780143123262

Sorry for some quiet audio in parts!
Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England and Manchester Metropolitan University's Digital Labs. Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

2.2 Iraq + 100 with Anoud, Sinead Murphy & Annie Webster

The fourth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, guest host and co-editor of the Europa28 anthology, Sophie Hughes, is in conversation with contributors Kapka Kassabova and Janne Teller about Comma's recent anthology, Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe,  a Hay Festival Project. 

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, our three guest discussed writing about Europe amidst an ongoing refugee crisis, a global pandemic and in a nationalistic, post-Brexit world - what can we learn and take forward. They also discussed the impact and dangers of technological innovation, and what the world would be like without social media and 'bad news' culture.
 
Show notes:
Border by Kapka Kassabova 
War by Janne Teller
Hay Festival Wales 
Thomas Piketty

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England.
Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

2.4 Europa28 with Sophie Hughes, Janne Teller & Kapka Kassabova

Short story by Amanda Michalopoulou, taken from Decapolis (Comma Press).

Four Hundred Pleats by Amanda Michalopoulou

Short story by Alison MacLeod, taken from our Litmus: Short Stories from Modern Science anthology.

The Heart of Denis Noble by Alison MacLeod

The fifth episode of Series 2 of the Comma Press Podcast, which this series is on the theme of FUTURES.

In this episode, host and Comma Press Publisher Ra Page is in conversation with acclaimed author M. John Harrison, writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell and writers and critics Andy Hedgecock and Jennifer Hodgson.

Recorded remotely via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our four guests discussed the influence of the British landscape on not only M. John's work, in relation to his latest collection of selected stories (Settling the World) but also the wider British SFF canon, from H. G Wells to Susanna Clarke. As well as how British SFF writing has been adapted for the screen, endings and closure in modern fiction and much more...

Sponsored by STORGY. Supported by Arts Council England. 
Produced and edited by Becca Parkinson.

Show notes: 
Settling the World by M. John Harrison
Climbers by M John Harrison
J G Ballard
Ann Quin
Phenomenology
Psychogeography
Hauntology (Jacques Derrida)
‘The Door In The Wall’ (H. G. Wells)
‘The Stains’ (Robert Aickman)
‘English eerie’ Essay by Robert Macfarlane https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane
‘A View from a Hill’ (M. R. James)
‘The Signalman’ (Charles Dickens)
Holloway by Robert Macfarlane
‘Candyman’ (Clive Barker)
‘The Birds’ (Daphne du Maurier)
The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Further watching:
Ben Wheatley's A Field in England (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRRvzjkzu2U
Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General
The Wicker Man 
Holloway (short film): https://celluloidwickerman.com/2015/07/06/short-film-holloway-robert-macfarlane/

2.5 M. John Harrison and landscape in British SFF writing

SOMETHING HAS FALLEN AWAY. We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject. The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Georges Bataille’s societal equivalent – with visceral stories of modern unease. As we become ever-more isolated by social media bubbles, or the demands for social distancing, our moral gag-reflex is increasingly sensitised, and our ability to tolerate difference, or ‘the other’, atrophies. Like all good horror writing, these stories remind us that exposure to what unsettles us, even in small doses, is always better than pretending it doesn’t exist. After all, we can never be wholly free of that which belongs to us.

This is an extract from Ramsey Campbell's short story, 'Extending the Family', read by the author himself and recorded over Zoom. The story explores the abjection of one’s own past from one’s present.

Ramsey Campbell is described by the Oxford Companion to English Literature as ‘Britain’s most respected living horror writer’. He is the author of over 30 novels (most recently The Way of the Worm (2018) andThe Wise Friend (2020), six novellas, and hundreds of short stories, many of them widely considered classics in the field and winners of multiple literary awards.

The New Abject extract - 'Extending the Family' by Ramsey Campbell

Short story by Christine Poulson, taken from Comma's crime anthology I.D.: Crimes of Identity.

Don't You Hate Having Two Heads by Christine Poulson

A new podcast from UK based independent publisher Comma Press, specialising in the short story and literature in translation.

Series Two: Futures, brings listeners 6 discussions around future-set fiction, including sci-fi, speculative fiction and future-looking literary fiction. This series takes in a number of recent and bestselling Comma titles, with episodes featuring authors, translators, editors and academics in conversation about the influence of genre, and how science-fiction and writing about the future can and has changed and expanded horizons for readers and writers.

Series One: Protest, brings listeners 6 discussions around stories featured in the Comma anthology 'Protest: Stories of Resistance'. This collection brought authors together with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses to re-imagine key moments of British protest.

Comma Press

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