These pieces were all written on the Comma Press Short Story Course facilitated by Michelle Green at Bank Street Arts. The group met once a month for six months. Each session involved some critique from peers and the tutor of their own work, a close look at examples of stories from other writers as well as theory and practice of the craft. When they started meeting, tutor Michelle asked the writers to risk something, to leap out beyond what they knew they could do and towards the things that didn’t have names the ideas, the shapeless feeling that wanted form, the stories that existed in margins and notes for someday. The stories featured here explore the elasticity and playfulness of the short fiction form, and all of them inhabit alternate realities of one kind or the edge places and borderlands of grief, growth, love, and mental divergence. These are luscious stories, the kind that want to be read and re-read, so please treat yourself – run through knee-high snow, let the rain run down your face, and take notes on the magical properties of dishwashers, gore-tex, and the very top of Bleaklow Hill. In the words of Michelle, it is our hope this anthology will introduce you to top notch new fiction from Sheffield writers.