Stories that matter: flash fiction about the future of public life
Shared Press is delighted to be publishing Change the Ending our slim, elegant collection of very short tales tackles a weighty, important issue – the future of public life. In June 2014 we sent out an open call for writers to leave behind the doom and gloom, the negative narratives that often surround the public sector and create alternative scenarios, to envision futures they wanted to see, to tell it like it could be.
We’ve been amazed by the response and received many more stories than we had space for, including lots from first-time writers. They have taken on knotty political issues with great heart and insight, inviting readers to think again. While many tales are full of warmth and humour, the collection contains real grit and serious ideas. There is imagination, poetry and passion. We’d like to send a big thanks to our writers:
Andy Burns, Martin Smith, Pete Murphy, Sophie Payne, Kate Saffin, Kersten England, Duncan Sharkey, Jason O’Brien,John McPherson, Sarah Dale, Adrian Besley, Kate Simants, Pippa Corner, Mark Rogers, Jo Miller, Jan Britton, Gareth Young, Clive Mason, Tim Kindberg, Rebecca Smith, Richard Carr, Jenny Hacker, Fran Collingham, Thara Raj, Patrick Adams, Robin Tuddenham, Debbie Young, Jenny Rowlands and Phoebe Morris-Jones, Derrick Anderson, Bob Charnley, Lisa Quinn, Geoff Bateson, Andy Hull, Dickson Ogbonna, John Latham, John Tizard, Mike Ellsmore, Stephanie Brann, Graeme McDonald.
There will be more treats for readers as we’ll be publishing more stories here on the blog over the coming months.
The project has had fantastic support from The Guardian’s Public Leaders’ Network, the Society for Local Authority Chief Executives and KnowledgeHub, an organisation, like Shared Press, that is all about challenging the status quo and thinking differently. Thanks also to them.
We hope you enjoy reading Change the Ending as much as we have and we’ll be in touch with more news on future projects.