Front cover of Sense
A group of writers featuring graduates from the University of Essex have received praise after publishing their first collection of stories.
Sense: A Collection of Short Stories includes pieces by creative writing, philosophy and literature graduates Jordan Burke, Darren Cotton, Lu Greer, Kieran Layer, Chris Player and Stephen Yates.
Chris, who edited the collection and wrote one of the stories, said topics ranged from “the personal, to the technological, to the political and beyond”.
He added: “The collection acts as an original way to exhibit our writing to the literary world. This project has been a fantastic way to exhibit all our work together and show off some incredible writing styles. I love short stories as they are a window into someone’s perspective, and no matter how brief can make the greatest of impacts upon your own outlook and this has definitely been achieved through all the stories on this project.”
The collection has already gained praise from Essex academics.
Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies Lecturer Deirdre Serjeantson said: “A bold and thought-provoking vision of the future from a series of exciting new voices.”
Creative Writing lecturer Adrian May said: “Our students produce weird and wonderful writing, often of outstanding maturity and powerful intelligence - you'll find much of that in these stories.”
Writer Ralph Hawkins said: "This gathering of nascent writers concern themselves with the present predicaments of the post-human world and with the unwilling fragility of our very being. Are these stories warnings or futuristic insights?"
This collection of short stories varies from issues of the present day, to problematic views of fantastic and tragic futures.
The further the reader progresses into the book, the settings become more futuristic, as the stories are ordered in a hypothetical timeline.
Bodybuilding, social media, the media and the justice system are just a few of the concepts that come in to play in these short and fascinating pieces of fiction.
Related stories