Future Perfect Tense

As noted by Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Chris Beckett in his foreword, one of the key pleasures of this anthology is the range of different forms, subjects and styles: “Poetry, travelogue, a last will and testament, microfiction (nanofiction, even?) ... and – yeeeessss! – several pieces of science fiction.”

The writers involved find themselves at the start of their careers, facing – as we all do – an uncertain future. But anxiety can spur the imagination if we let it, and these writers have chosen to do so. The result is variety and experimentation. Colour, darkness, familiar and alien landscapes, rifts in time and space, tricks of the light, memory and glossary, loss and longing.