All Comma Titles by Genre
Refugee Tales
Refugee Tales
Fourteen stories exploring real life refugee experiences, told in the style of the Canterbury Tales
Refugee Tales: Volume II
The sequel to Refugee Tales, telling the true stories of asylum seekers who’ve suffered at the hands of Britain’s policy of ‘indefinite detention’, in the form of a modern-day Canterbury Tales.
Refugee Tales: Volume III
The third volume of Refugee Tales, writers and poets tell the stories of refugees who have suffered under UK immigration rule.
Speculative Fiction
Iraq + 100
Iraq + 100 poses a question to ten Iraqi writers: what might your country look like in the year 2103 – a century after the disastrous American- and British-led invasion, and 87 years down the line from its current, nightmarish battle for survival?
Palestine + 100
Palestine + 100 poses a question to contemporary Palestinian writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2048 – exactly 100 years after Nakba, the displacement of more than 700,000 people after the Israeli War of Independence?
The BBC National Short Story Award
The BBC National Short Story Award 2013
The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2010
This year's shortlist brings together a high calibre group of new and established authors exploring human relationships at their most dysfunctional and yet sustaining.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2011
The 2011 edition of the celebrated BBC National Short Story Award, featuring the authors D.W. Wilson, Jon McGregor, M.J. Hyland and more.
The BBC International Short Story Award 2012
In honour of the 2012 Olympics, this edition opened its doors to international short story submissions from all over the world, thus becoming the first BBC International Short Story Award.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2014
The five shortlisted stories in the UK's most prestiguous award for short fiction by authors Tessa Hadley, Francesca Rhydderch, Lionel Shriver, Zadie Smith & Rose Tremain
The BBC National Short Story Award 2015
The BBC National Short Story Award with BookTrust celebrates its tenth year with a stellar line-up of authors including winner Jonathan Buckley and runner-up Mark Haddon.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2016
Now in its eleventh year, this highly anticipated collection celebrates the very best in contemporary British fiction with an all-female shortlist of renowned authors, who explore the short story form in spectacular fashion.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2017
The twelfth year of the BBC prize shortlist anthology, featuring five superb short stories.
The BBC National Short Story Award 2018
The thirteenth year of the esteemed BBC prize shortlist, this year introduced by head judge Stig Abell.
Science into Fiction
Moss Witch
Each story in Sara Maitland’s new collection enacts a daring kind of alchemy, fusing together raw elements of scientific theory with ancient myth.
Litmus: Short Stories from Modern Science
This anthology draws out and distills science’s love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories, and delving into the humanity of theorists and experimenters as they stood on the brink of momentous discoveries.
Bio-Punk
14 leading authors have here been challenged to write fresh fictional interpretations of what the uncanny might mean in the 21st century.
Lemistry
British and Polish novelists join screenwriters, poets, computer engineers, and artists, to celebrate and explore Lem’s legacy through short stories and essays.
When It Changed
When It Changed is an attempt to put authors and scientists back in touch with each other, to re-introduce research ideas with literary concerns, and to re-forge the alloy that once made SF great.
Beta-Life
Short stories from an A-Life Future, inspired by the vway we interact with technology, the roles we adopt in an increasingly ‘intelligent’ environment, and how we interface with each other.
Spindles: Stories from the Science of Sleep
Short stories informed by explorations of the science of sleep
Thought X: Fictions and Hypotheticals
An anthology of specially-commissioned stories exploring thought experiments and their use in science to crack fundamental problems.
science fiction
Iraq + 100
Iraq + 100 poses a question to ten Iraqi writers: what might your country look like in the year 2103 – a century after the disastrous American- and British-led invasion, and 87 years down the line from its current, nightmarish battle for survival?
You Should Come With Me Now
M. John Harrison is a cartographer of the liminal; his work sits at the boundaries between genres – horror and science fiction, fantasy and travel writing – just as his stories traverse the no man’s land between the spatial and the spiritual.
Palestine + 100
Palestine + 100 poses a question to contemporary Palestinian writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2048 – exactly 100 years after Nakba, the displacement of more than 700,000 people after the Israeli War of Independence?
New Author Anthologies
Brace
Organ-playing wunderkinds, poets on government re-employment schemes, unlikely celebrity party guests…
Bracket: A New Generation in Fiction
Bracket brings together 20 promising, previously unpublished UK writers.
Comma
Real or surreal, despairing or defiant, these stories prove that far from being a genre of offcuts and unfinished ideas, the short story, if only we give it a moment, is very much alive and well.
Ellipsis 1: Comma Modern Shorts
Ellipsis is a series celebrating the 'short story sequence' - that interlocking daisy-chain of narrative produced when stories knit together to form a continuum of character or theme.
Ellipsis 2: Comma Modern Shorts
The stories in Ellipsis 2 demonstrate the transforming, often alienating affect a relationship can have on the individuals in it, and remind us that being next of kin isn’t always kind.
Hyphen: an anthology of short stories by poets
Established and award winning poets from around Britian and the UK have been asked to 'interlope' into the unknown territory of the short - most of them for the first time and each bringing with them a new, poetic perspective as well as an intuitive feel for the snapshot's hidden narratives.
Parenthesis: a New Generation in Short Fiction
Comma's second anthology of new writers showcases 20 of the most imaginative and daring voices taking up the form; writers dedicated to charting the far reaches of this terrain right at the outset of their careers; writers who prove it's best to stay short.
The Mirror in the Mirror
New Perspectives in Short Fiction
Poetry
Dangerous Driving
The poems in Chris Woods' second collection remind us to take time out from our lives, from ourselves, and share with us both the pleasures and surprises that come with even the smallest skive…
Dr James Graham's Celestial Bed
Dr James Graham's Celestial Bed marks the arrival of yet another great Yorkshire poet.
Lifting The Piano With One Hand
Yorkshire-born poet Gaia Holmes' much-anticipated second collection.
Mollusc
Helen Clare's relationship poems are coloured with the intricacy of a cross-section, the emotional strata of a dissector’s imagination.
Pray For Us Sinners
The whirlwind of words that is Denby’s fifth collection builds legends within legends, retells myths and casts new ones where you least expect them.
Planet Box
Planet Box is a collaboration that re-configures our idea of the poetry book.
From Professor Murasaki’s Notebooks on the Effects of Lightning on the Human Body
Having trained as a physicist – specialising in the science of cloud formation – and then later emerged as one of the more curious voices in British poetry, John Latham is not a writer you’re ever likely to forget.
Where the Road Runs Out
Third collection from acclaimed contemporary female poet Gaia Holmes.
Breaking the Genre
The New Uncanny
14 leading authors have here been challenged to write fresh fictional interpretations of what the uncanny might mean in the 21st century, to update Freud’s famous checklist of what gives us the creeps, and to give the hulking canon of uncanny fiction a shot in the arm, a shock to the neck-bolts...
Phobic: Modern Horror Stories
Phobic shines a torch into the unlit areas of the modern subconscious and suggests the more we know, the more we realise how worried we really should be.
I.D.: Crimes of Identity
A showcase of shorts from the Crime Writers' Association which celebrates the ‘who’ in the whodunnit, the psyche behind the psychological profile.
M.O.: Crimes of Practice
These stories demonstrate that, even with the most despicable of crimes, there’s methodology in the madness.
Protest: Stories of Resistance
This book asks 20 authors and 20 historians to bring crucial moments of British protest to life.
Protest: Stories of Resistance
The paperback edition of our bestselling anthology of British protest inspired short stories.
Single Author Collections
Amuse-Bouche
Bizarre, garrulous, self-confident, often desperately lonely; such is the variety of characters Grunberg meets...
The Silence Room
Chain-smoking alcoholics, warring academics, gothic stalkers and aspiring writers are just some of the visitors that browse the mysterious library at the heart of Sean O’Brien’s fiction debut.
Hitting Trees With Sticks
A young textile designer quits Britain to work for a Nigerian women’s refuge, confident that this is her one chance to make a difference…
Tea at the Midland
The characters in David Constantine’s fourth collection are often delicately caught in moments of defiance. Constantine’s bewitching, finely-wrought stories give us permission to escape.
Moss Witch
Each story in Sara Maitland’s new collection enacts a daring kind of alchemy, fusing together raw elements of scientific theory with ancient myth.
Cold Sea Stories
The characters in Pawel Huelle’s mesmerising stories find themselves, willingly or not, at the heart of epic narratives; legends and histories that stretch far beyond the limits of their own lives.
I Love You When I'm Drunk
So delicate and fleet-footed are these stories, even the most single-minded protagonists win us over with a raucous charm that makes us love them and hate them in equal measure.
Instruction Manual for Swallowing
Welcome to the surreal, misshapen universe of Adam Marek’s first collection; a bestiary of hybrids from the techno-crazed future and mythical past.
It Was Just, Yesterday
The characters in Mirja Unge’s debut collection are all, in their own way, evading something; whether failing to confront the true nature of an encounter, or avoiding responsibilities as a parent, sibling or friend.
Long Days
With pared down but insistent language, Wetzel achieves a poise and clarity and presents lives that are as arresting as they are arrested.
The Madman of Freedom Square
Blasim’s stories present an uncompromising view of the West's relationship with Iraq, spanning over twenty years and taking in everything from the Iran-Iraq War through to the Occupation...
On Flying Objects
Whether evading the expectations of adult life, or finding themselves drawn to characters they’re simultaneously repulsed by, each one of Hakl's characters holds a mirror up to the peculiar failings of masculinity.
The Last Tram
In these stories Gürsel crisscrosses modern Europe, settling in some cities — like Paris — for many years, visiting others several times, decades apart.
The Iraqi Christ
From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim’s stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real.
The Shieling
The characters in David Constantine’s remarkable new collection are united by an urge to absent themselves, to abscond from the intolerable pressures of normal life and withdraw into strange ideas, political causes, even private languages.
The Stone Thrower
Pulsing at the core of Adam Marek’s much-anticipated second collection is a single, unifying theme: a parent’s instinct to protect a particularly vulnerable child.
Stone Tree
In almost every one of Eliasson's stories we find people taking leave of their normal lives in order to take their dreams more seriously.
Tiny Deaths
Robert Shearman’s debut collection offers a gravity-defying spectacle: a procession of perfectly weighted what-ifs floating just above the real world, self-contained hypotheticals all buoyed up by a single, infinitely variable theme: mortality.
Twice in a Lifetime
Each of Sverrisson’s stories offers an intricate study in the precariousness of life, the frailty of every fleeting opportunity.
Under the Dam
Entering Constantine’s stories is like stepping out into a wind of words, a swarm of language. His prose is as fluid as the water that surges and swells through all his landscapes.
The War Tour
Zoe Lambert’s stories weave a dark and disturbing web, interlacing documentary accounts with imagined testimonies to give voice to the many silenced casualties of war.
You Have 24 Hours to Love Us
Whether living under a totalitarian regime or simply getting through the day in a grindingly predictable metropolis, Ware’s characters struggle with the urge to redefine themselves, to start again, to reboot.
Jebel Marra
Michelle Green – a former aid worker in Darfur – re-tells the story of the Sudanese civil war from 15 different perspectives, capturing by turns the brutal indifference of the government war machine, the terrible scars inflicted on individuals caught in its path, and the complex melting pot of experiences that constitutes any relief effort.
The Well of Trapped Words
Blending mysticism and modernity, Kaygusuz’s stories demonstrate why she is regarded as one of the most promising writers in Turkey today
In Another Country: Selected Stories
Gathering together stories from over two decades of writing, this selection demonstrates why Constantine has been hailed as ‘perhaps the finest of contemporary writers in this form’. Featuring the story that inspired the motion picture, 45 Years.
Points of Origin
A window into the contemporary Chinese psyche through the short stories from one of China's leading satirists, Diao Dou.
Swallow Summer
The debut collection from German author Larissa Boehning, translated into English by Lyn Marven. Shortlisted for the 2017 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
The Ghost Who Bled
Achingly sad and boundlessly inventive, Norminton’s short story collection is as witty and lyrical as it is moving.
Scent: The Collected Works
The collected works of the much loved NW writer, Dinesh Allirajah
You Should Come With Me Now
M. John Harrison is a cartographer of the liminal; his work sits at the boundaries between genres – horror and science fiction, fantasy and travel writing – just as his stories traverse the no man’s land between the spatial and the spiritual.
Quartier Perdu
Second collection of short stories by the multi-award-winning poet, playwright and journalist Sean O’Brien.
Letters Home
The first collection of short stories from award-winning thriller writer and YA author Martyn Bedford.
Triple Word Score
The debut collection of short stories, and the first piece of adult fiction from the award-winning children’s writer and seminal film-writer.
The Sea Cloak
A collection of stories from an exciting female Palestinian writer, translated from Arabic into English for the first time.
Thirteen Months of Sunrise
A bold collection from one of Sudan’s most exciting new writers.
Translated Anthologies
ReBerth: Stories from Cities on the Edge
Featuring short stories by twelve acclaimed writers from the Cities on the Edge, ReBerth explores these landscapes of change - the social tensions, the scars of war and economic decline, the attempts at regeneration, and the startling and sometimes unsavoury secrets of how these cities’ inhabitants thrive and survive.
Elsewhere: Stories from Small Town Europe
Pressed to describe what the phrase ‘small town’ conjures up, we’d be hard pushed to say anything positive: closed-minded; petty; provincial; parochial. On a broad European canvas, however, the rich traditions of short story writing challenge these preconceptions.
The Book of Istanbul
This book brings together ten short stories from some of Turkey’s leading writers, taking us on a literary tour of the city, from its famous landmarks to its darkened back streets.
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.
Madinah: City Stories from the Middle East
For all we think we know of the conflict and exoticism of the region, nothing opens more doors to what we don’t than its writing. Here, ten short stories by new and established writers have been selected and translated in English for the first time, to open just such a door…
Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China
The challenges depicted in these stories are uniquely Chinese, but the energy and ingenuity with which their authors approach them is something readers everywhere can marvel at.
The Book of Gaza
This anthology brings together some of the pioneers of the Gazan short story from that era, as well as younger exponents of the form, with ten stories that offer glimpses of life in the Strip that go beyond the global media headlines.
The Book of Rio
The ten stories in this anthology bring to life the complex and ever-changing face of Rio de Janeiro behind the tourist-tailored images of the city.
The Book of Tokyo
Bestselling anthology of short fiction about the city of Tokyo, translated into English for the first time.
The Book of Khartoum
Short stories about the Sudanese capital, featuring ten authors including Bushra al-Fadil and his 2017 Caine Prize winning story.
The Book of Dhaka
Stories taken from the bustling, chaotic city of Dhaka by ten talented writers. At their core, these stories are of quintessential human relationships and motivations that would have resonance in virtually any part of the world.
Iraq + 100
Iraq + 100 poses a question to ten Iraqi writers: what might your country look like in the year 2103 – a century after the disastrous American- and British-led invasion, and 87 years down the line from its current, nightmarish battle for survival?
Banthology
New stories specially written in response to President Trump’s divisive immigration ban, featuring established and emerging writers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Conradology
Polish and British writers journey into the heart of darkness that is Europe to write responses and meditations on Conrad’s writing.
The Book of Tbilisi
The Book of Tbilisi brings together ten short stories written about and from the Georgian capital, showcasing the work of some of the country’s most exciting and decorated contemporary writers.
Palestine + 100
Palestine + 100 poses a question to contemporary Palestinian writers: what might your home city look like in the year 2048 – exactly 100 years after Nakba, the displacement of more than 700,000 people after the Israeli War of Independence?
non-fiction
The Drone Eats with Me
Saif's diary of the Gaza War in 2014, with foreword by Noam Chomsky. Shortlisted for the MEMO Palestine Book Award.
Booklets
Leeds Stories 1
This is the first in a series of specially commissioned, original short stories celebrating the strength and richness of the city's literary alumni.
Leeds Stories 2
Part 2 of a series of mini short story anthologies celebrating Leeds writing.
Liverpool Stories 1
This, the first in a series of short story mini-anthologies, celebrates Liverpool’s on-going literary output through accessible, magazine-style collections – distributed to as many readers as possible.
Manchester Stories 1
Six Tales of City Life, published in 1998.
Manchester Stories 2
A collection of stories documenting the modern Mancunian experience. The second in the series.
Manchester Stories 3
Launched March 11, 2002, on the 25th Floor of the CIS Building, Manchester, in conjunction with Co-Op Insurance Services.
Manchester Stories 4
Launched June 21, 2002, Geoffrey Manton Building, MMU, Manchester as part of a series of 'Manchester Writing' events within the Literatures of the Commonwealth Festival.
Manchester Stories 5: Caesura
Both featured in City Life and sold separately, this issue was the first of the booklets to be distributed FREE to public transport users in the Greater Manchester area.
Manchester Stories 6: Europride Special
This was the first in the Manchester series to look beyond Greater Manchester for its authors, bringing together an international cast of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers from Britain and abroad, as well as home grown talent, to celebrate Manchester hosting Europride, the largest celebration of Gay and Lesbian culture in Europe.
Manchester Stories 7: Gothic Tales
The theme for this special edition is ‘gothic’ and modern, urban responses to what gothic means, or can mean, in modern Britain.
Newcastle Stories
Published in September 04, issue 1 Newcastle Stories 1, six established and award-winning Newcastle authors kick-started a unique new magazine series that featured anthologies of new work twice a year and free to readers of The Crack.
Novels
Home is Where
A ground-breaking literary vision, swerving in and out of the isolated monologue of an isolated elderly woman
Ditch-Crawl
Ditch-crawling has no rules, just aesthetic principles…John Latham’s first novel constructs an Escher-like maze of what ifs and what nows. Thronging with characters, this is a journey through the unattended subplots of our lives, the on-going narrative that subconscious itself weaves together.
While There is Light
While There Is Light is a fictionalised account of the events leading up to the arrest of one of the so called 'Bradford 12'.
The Life-Writer
A new novel, written by critically acclaimed short story writer, David Constantine.
Studying the Short Story
Morphologies
Covering a century of writing that arguably saw all the major short forms emerge, from Hawthorne's 'Twice Told Tales' to Kafka's modernist nightmares, these essays offer new and unique inroads into classic texts, both for the literature student and aspiring writer.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel and other stories
Ten of the best Mansfield stories specially selected by the acclaimed author and critic Alison MacLeod who also provides a critical essay.
Gusev and other stories
Ten of the best Chekhov stories specially selected by the acclaimed author and critic Frank Cottrell Boyce who also provides a critical essay.
Young Goodman Brown and Other Stories
Sara Maitland selects and introduces a collection Hawthorne's best stories.
The Man of the Crowd
In this new edition, Sean O'Brien introduces a selection of stories from the master of the American Gothic short story, as well as providing a specially written critical analysis on the form and style of Poe's writing.
Lot No. 249
Respected crime writer, critic and editor Martin Edwards introduces a selection of Conan Doyle's most influential and innovative stories.
They and other stories
Ten of the best Kipling stories specially selected by the acclaimed author and critic Adam Roberts, who also provides an introductory essay.
The Rats in the Walls and other stories
Ten of the best Lovecraft stories, specially selected by the acclaimed author and critic Ramsey Campbell, who also provides a introductory essay.
Reading the City
ReBerth: Stories from Cities on the Edge
Featuring short stories by twelve acclaimed writers from the Cities on the Edge, ReBerth explores these landscapes of change - the social tensions, the scars of war and economic decline, the attempts at regeneration, and the startling and sometimes unsavoury secrets of how these cities’ inhabitants thrive and survive.
Elsewhere: Stories from Small Town Europe
Pressed to describe what the phrase ‘small town’ conjures up, we’d be hard pushed to say anything positive: closed-minded; petty; provincial; parochial. On a broad European canvas, however, the rich traditions of short story writing challenge these preconceptions.
The Book of Istanbul
This book brings together ten short stories from some of Turkey’s leading writers, taking us on a literary tour of the city, from its famous landmarks to its darkened back streets.
The Book of Leeds
Bringing together fiction from some of the city's most celebrated writers, The Book of Leeds traces the unique contours that fifty years of social and economic change can impress on a city.
The Book of Liverpool
Bringing together fiction from some of the city’s most celebrated writers, The Book of Liverpool traces the unique contours that decades of social and economic change can impress on a city.
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.
Madinah: City Stories from the Middle East
For all we think we know of the conflict and exoticism of the region, nothing opens more doors to what we don’t than its writing. Here, ten short stories by new and established writers have been selected and translated in English for the first time, to open just such a door…
Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China
The challenges depicted in these stories are uniquely Chinese, but the energy and ingenuity with which their authors approach them is something readers everywhere can marvel at.
The Book of Gaza
This anthology brings together some of the pioneers of the Gazan short story from that era, as well as younger exponents of the form, with ten stories that offer glimpses of life in the Strip that go beyond the global media headlines.
The Book of Rio
The ten stories in this anthology bring to life the complex and ever-changing face of Rio de Janeiro behind the tourist-tailored images of the city.
The Book of Tokyo
Bestselling anthology of short fiction about the city of Tokyo, translated into English for the first time.
The Book of Khartoum
Short stories about the Sudanese capital, featuring ten authors including Bushra al-Fadil and his 2017 Caine Prize winning story.
The Book of Dhaka
Stories taken from the bustling, chaotic city of Dhaka by ten talented writers. At their core, these stories are of quintessential human relationships and motivations that would have resonance in virtually any part of the world.
The Book of Havana
Leading you through the backstreets and bars of Havana, ten stories demonstrating the power of contemporary Cuban literature.
The Book of Riga
The Book of Riga brings together ten short stories written about and from the capital of Latvia, showcasing the work of some of the country’s most well-known, and exciting emerging writers.
The Book of Tbilisi
The Book of Tbilisi brings together ten short stories written about and from the Georgian capital, showcasing the work of some of the country’s most exciting and decorated contemporary writers.
The Book of Birmingham
Part of Comma’s award-winning ‘Reading the City’ series, featuring landmark local talent from Birmingham’s burgeoning book scene.
The Book of Cairo
This collection brings together a new generation of writers (many of whom have never had their work translated into English) and their writings about the city.
The Book of Tehran
Ten short stories from the Iranian capital of Tehran, translated into English for the first time.