Introduction

Many moons ago I used to be an astronomer, and spent much of my professional life classifying images of galaxies. Was a particular galaxy a Seyfert 1 or a Seyfert 2? Was it radio loud, or radio quiet? But nothing was ever easily identifiable; every category had its exceptions that blurred boundaries. In time I realised that the intended aim of classifying actually created the blurring. All this is a (very) roundabout way of justifying my choices here. Several undeniably echt short stories, yes, but also a prose poem and some essays, as well as hybrids and autofiction.

The literary marketplace is keen to sell us the next big thing. There’s an emphasis on the new, the latest, the just-discovered, the debuts. But for me reading is rereading, just as the most important part of writing is rewriting, and a story often comes alive during the nth rereading, when I feel I both know and don’t know it. And as with literature, scientific discoveries and breakthroughs get all the headlines, but they only becomes ‘real’ if they can be repeated.

So, in random order: