Description: The Solstice Shorts festival celebrates the shortest day of the year (which is also Short Story Day), with stories, poems, and songs to an appropriate theme. In 2015, that theme was 'Longest Night', in 2016, it was 'Shortest Day', and was celebrated (appropriately) with flash fiction. These are the combined stories and poems for both events.
Brief description: Cherry Potts is the author of two collections of short stories: Mosaic of Air (republished by Arachne Press in 2013, and Tales Told Before Cockcrow (currently out of print); a photographic diary of a community opera The Blackheath Onegin, and a fantasy novel, The Dowry Blade (Arachne Press 2016). Cherry has also had several stories in anthologies (including Arachne Press publications), magazines and online. She is currently working on her next collection, a science fiction novel, and a timeslip-young-adult kinda thing. Cherry is the Director of Arachne Press, for whom she is editor/co-editor of all Arachne's anthologies.
Review Quotes:
Shortest Day, Longest Night "is a collection of twenty-three stories and thirty-four poems, taken from the Solstice Shorts Festival. The writers deftly explore delicate and touching themes, including religion, birth and darkness. Under the arc of transitional days and nights, the pieces edited by Cherry Potts offer a glimpse into intriguing and mysterious timelines.
. . . The Shortest Day stories are beautifully crafted. . . I found the poetry in Shortest Day, Longest Night to be equally as stirring . . .
Overall, the short stories and poems in Shortest Day, Longest Night turn thematic conventions on their heads. Whether it be mental health, religion or family relationships, the poets and authors in this collection offer fresh and innovative perspectives on universal matters. Taken from the Solstice Shorts Festival 2015 & 2016, which celebrates both the shortest day of the year and Short Story Day, the fifty-seven pieces in this collection truly put some of the finest talent on display."
- Chloe Moloney in Sabotage Reviews (http: //sabotagereviews.com/2018/06/05/shortest-day-longest-night-2015-2016-ed-cherry-potts/)