What if any dull, stilted exchange could turn into a genuine connection — even if you become a blundering mess around strangers?You are fine with close friends, but the moment a stranger appears you freeze. Your mind goes blank, the silence stretches, and afterward you replay every awkward thing you said.You are tired of feeling anxious at parties, meetings, and introductions, watching other people hit it off effortlessly while you rehearse a line you nev...

What if you could turn any awkward silence into a conversation people actually enjoy?The panic sets in the moment you have to talk to someone new. Your mind goes blank, the small talk fizzles, and thirty seconds later you are both looking for an exit. Afterward you replay every clumsy line, telling yourself you're just "too shy" or "socially awkward."Left unchecked, that quiet dread costs you friendships, dates, opportunities, and the easy connection you ...

The language of Poetry is an art that most of us attempt at some point in our lives. Although its commonplace exposure has been somewhat marginalised in today’s often fast-paced lives we all recognise good verse that can empathise with our thoughts or open us up to experience new things in new ways, to better understand and to enjoy the many strands of our lives.But finding a starting point can be overwhelming, even off-putting, so in this series we offer up our Top 10 classic poet...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on the 23rd February 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895. As a sociologist his writing, including the classic 1903 work ‘The Souls of Black Folk’, introduced the concept of "double consciousness"—the sense of 'twoness' felt by Black Americans—and his famous statement, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."Du Bois ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

The language of Poetry is an art that most of us attempt at some point in our lives. Although its commonplace exposure has been somewhat marginalised in today’s often fast-paced lives we all recognise good verse that can empathise with our thoughts or open us up to experience new things in new ways, to better understand and to enjoy the many strands of our lives.But finding a starting point can be overwhelming, even off-putting, so in this series we offer up our Top 10 classic poet...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunit...

The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is Annie McCary.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection b...

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio.When his father’s business failed the family was forced to move on a regular basis before finally settling in Clyde, Ohio.Anderson, one of 7 children, left school at 14 to take a number of jobs to help with the family finances. These were difficult years.He moved to Chicago in search of opportunities before joining the Army for the US-Spanish War of 1898. He then entered Wittenberg Academy in Springfi...

The concept of right and wrong, of good and bad, is taught to us from childhood. It’s a guiding principle as we journey through the decades of life. Easy to keep to? Sometimes it’s easier not to.Authors of the talent of Franz Kafka, F Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others create characters and circumstances that test their capacity for morality to the limit.1 - Stories Exploring Morality - An Introduction2 - The Dead - Part 1 by James Joyce