Cirrus@Austlit

'I was slicing through the papaya at breakfast when there was a flutter at the porch railing. An urraca had dropped by to say hello, its ornamental crest feathers quivering as it bobbed its head this way and that in curiosity. It was so close that I barely had to set any digital zoom on the mobile camera to capture the velveteen lustre of its twilight-coloured feathers contrasting with the foliage lit up by the morning sun behind it.' (Toh Hsien Min : Editorial introduction)

'These are contradictory times and Charles Dickens' haunting words at the opening of A Tale of Two Cities hold prophetically true as a gloss of the contents of four W twenty-nine-. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age. foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was  the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...' One of the roles of poetry and fiction is to explore and articulate contradiction and contrariety in all its imagined layers, finials, matrices and interstice,. It's what gives art part of its power, 'authenticity', seductive appeal — to take readers inside new ways of seeing the familiar world: 'language made strange' is still a useful definition of poetry (and prose).' (Editorial introduction)
 

'A selection of published short fiction by the highly commended author.'