Five by Five

A showcase for authors Arachne Press has published previously in anthologies, giving a wider perspective on their writing. The collection as a whole has tendency towards fantasy and magical realism, with Cassandra Passarelli's (Liberty Tales) Guatemalan stories taking on a more gritty reality, and Katy Darby's (London Lies, Stations, Shortest Day, Longest Night) engrossing SF and historical stories alongside Joan Taylor Rowan's (London Lies, Lover's Lies, Stations) acid humour and modern desperation and Sarah James' (Longest Day, Shortest Night) elliptical poet's sensibility brought to flash fiction and Helen Morris' (Liberty Tales, Solstice Shorts) ability to get to the heart of a story, and make you laugh out loud or weep inconsolably.

Katy Darby co-runs Liars' League (www.liarsleague.com) and teaches Short Story Writing and Novel Writing at City University, London. Her first novel, The Whores' Asylum, was published by Penguin in February 2012. Her personal website is www.katydarby.com. Katy is the co-editor of our Liars' League anthologies, London Lies, Lovers' Lies, (award winning) Weird Lies and We/She
Joan Taylor-Rowan is a former teacher of Art and Textiles, and world traveller. She is the author of The Birdskin Shoes, a tale of circuses and earthquakes in Mexico. She has had several stories read on Radio 4 and performed at Short Fuse, Storytales, Liars' League and Tales of the Decongested. She has also written the book and lyrics for a musical based on her own short story, Kandy Kottage. Joan now rund a writing group in Hastings.
Sarah is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, occasional playwright, poetryfilm maker and arts reviewer, and editor at V. Press. Author of four poetry collections, three poetry pamphlets and two novellas, she was also longlisted for the memoir prize in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017. She enjoys artistic commissions, mentoring and working as a writer in residence. Sarah featured in the 2015 Solstice Shorts Festival, Longest Night, and her poem At the Hotel de la Lune, is in the Shortest Day, Longest Night anthology, along side a story, Cut Short, which was read at the 2016 Solstice Shorts Festival, Shortest Day.

Sarah is one of six poets featured in Vindication and one of five short fiction authors in Five by Five.
Helen Morris was one of five winners of the Solstice Shorts competition 2015. She lives and works in Essex. She tries to fit in writing stories between doing the washing for three sons, swimming too much, eating delicious food and drinking good beer.

Helen has stories in Arachne anthologies Solstice Shorts Sixteen Stories about Time, No SPider Harmed in the Making of This Book, and Liberty Tales

Helen is one of five authors of Five by Five
A vagrant at heart, Cassandra has spent much time wandering, from Guatemala to Burma, between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. She's published a couple of dozen stories and been short-listed for literary prizes, most recently the Beverley Prize. She lives in East Devon with her daughter.