In the latest of our celebrated series, you find yourself surfacing, dazed in the waiting room. You read snatches of lines over the shoulders of raincoats. In the carriage you have glimpses and visions. At your destination you can hear space, see thunder, taste realization. You are running towards something, someone in the trees who holds out to you an understanding hand. Welcome to the wonderful and sometimes frightening world of Unthology 5.

Meet in difficult circumstances under flickering lights. Find yourself privy to the secrets of strangers. The silent barman is your confidante. Shilly-shally about succumbing to desire. Your private fears may enter a public space. Visit an unorthodox specialist. Make use of a pupa. Become someone else. Arrive at an airfield at the periphery. Choose a random flight. Head out for the lands you will come to know as UNTHOLOGY 6. 'A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick - a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.' Neil Gaiman Stories by: Robert Anthony, Roelof Bakker, Neil Campbell, Gordon Collins, Ailsa Cox, Graeme Finnie, Chrissie Gittins, Simon Griffiths, Victoria Hattersley, Daisy LaFarge, Luke Melia, Georgina Parfitt, Jonathan Pinnock, Alex Plasatis Tim Sykes, Matthew Temple and James Wall.

Wonderful and Frightening Short Fiction from New and Established Writers Flinch at the things that twitch in the windows a mile up from the city streets. Let text messages lead you towards a man that you already know is going to mess with your head. Find the meaning of life in your own lobotomy. Now, the ghost of Gaudi whispers in your ear, urging you to get yourself another lover, insisting it's all going to be smooth and comfortable this time. Ruin yourself and drift towards the haunted shores of your youth. Then find yourself back there, returned to the low-down slums of a city in a country that no longer exists, that UNTHOLOGY 7 documented and mapped out for you, and you alone, a long, long time ago.

UNTHOLOGY No. 2 is the second of Unthank Books' annual collection of unpredictable, unconventional short fiction. Like its predecessor, UNTHOLOGY No. 2 showcases established writers on great form and introduces exciting new voices. Its thirteen stories depend upon choices voluntary or otherwise, incarcerations and manic episodes and moments of doubt and transcendence. A man on his stag night encounters a woman who threatens all his certainties. The most ridiculous Health and Safety rules ever infect a company HQ. The complete lexicon of the poets of Radial City is finally made available. These are resonant tales for anxious times. Contains writing by: Joshua Allen, Sarah Evans, Shanta Everington, Paul A. Green, Lander Hawes, Ian Madden, Melissa Mann, M. Pinchuk, Stephanie Reid, Ashley Stokes, Nick Sweeney, Tessa West and Charles Wilkinson.

Extraordinary short fiction from new and established writers. UNTHOLOGY No.4 continues Unthank Books' celebrated series, drawing its energy from the wanderlust and shape-shifting tendencies of the contemporary short story. Its thirteen stories involve cats, crows and angels; moments of realization and moments of doubt; bad moves, wrong turns and trips across the border. A fire-scarred war veteran enters the domain of a coked-up yuppie. A blind girl wakes up to find that the birdsong has ended. A lad on the slide dates a cosseted schoolgirl and ends up teetering on a church roof. Safe-cracking stories by bold and stealthy writers. Joshua Allen Sarah Bower Carys Bray Ruby Cowling Michael Crossan Sarah Evans Rodge Glass Marc Owen Jones Rowena Macdonald Aiden O'Reilly Adrian Slatcher Barnaby Walsh Melanie Whipman Edited by Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes.

UNTHOLOGY NO.3 is the third in Unthank Books' series showcasing the finest short fiction from new and established writers. Like its predecessors, UNTHOLOGY No.3 lets the classic short story jostle for elbowroom with the formally unusual and the novelette. Its eighteen stories describe sticky predicaments, testing choices and reluctant confessions: a publisher surveys the changing literary scene as an age-old mob war he's losing; a man finds himself trapped by his own perfectionism in a forbidding meat-processing factory; a strange black monolith appears in a back garden somewhere in the north of England. Lit-up tales for dark times: David Rose, Sandra Jensen, Sarah Dobbs, Mischa Hiller, Gordon Collins, Ian Chung, Sharon Zink, Ashley Stokes, Angela Readman, CD Rose, AJ Ashworth, John Nicholson, Philip Langeskov, Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, Charlie Wilkinson, Sarah Evans, Tim Mitchell.

Containing 17 pieces by new and established authors, this hard-hitting, hilarious, and entertaining collection showcases unconventional, unpredictable, and experimental stories.