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CUP book

Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand

20 November 2023

Edited by Michelle Elvy, Frankie McMillan and James Norcliffe

HOW TO APPLY

August 2018
$9.99 (was $39.99)
296pp, paperback
215 x 165mm
ISBN: 978-1-927145-98-2

Slippery, and exciting 鈥 The stories come at you directly, and then turn askance, and then slap you in the face鈥 Allan Drew

Bonsai聽brings together a pioneering collection of flash fiction and associated forms (prose poetry and haibun) from 165 writers in Aotearoa New Zealand, along with intriguing essays on this increasingly popular genre. In 200 small stories of no more than 300 words, where the translucent boundaries between prose and poetry are often transgressed, we discover a vast array of human experience.

Bonsai cover_Thumbnail_26 June

Here, children race snails, shoot tin cans, learn to fly, and look for Antarctica in a drain pipe, while Schr枚dinger鈥檚 cat dreams of life and death, a dog licks away a woman鈥檚 tears, and a peacock guards its human family. Family tensions spill over during trips to the beach, couples get together and fall apart, babies are born 鈥 or not born 鈥 and parents die. You might find yourself dancing like the cool kids, listening to a neighbour sing in the dark, or watching a tractor catch fire. There are perfect moments in miniature as dew falls on a spider鈥檚 web and strangers make eye contact.

Composed with precision in a form where every word counts, these carefully chiselled works are provocative, tender and endlessly surprising.

Michelle Elvy聽is a writer and editor of flash fiction whose recent work appears in聽New聽 Micro Fiction聽(WW Norton, 2018). Among her many editing roles she is editor at聽Flash Frontier.

Frankie McMillan聽has been called 鈥榦ur maestro of flash fiction鈥. Her book聽My Mother and the Hungarians, and other small fictions聽(CUP, 2016) was long-listed for the Ockham Book Awards.

James Norcliffe is a poet, editor and writer for children. He is editor at聽Flash Frontier聽and has published nine collections of poetry, including聽Dark Days at the Oxygen Caf茅聽(VUP, 2016).

Bonsai聽is published with the support of Creative New Zealand.

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