Stories of the Nature of Cities 1/2 Hour. Episode 1—Biodiversity

Claire Stanford, Los Angeles.  Elizabeth Twist, Hamilton.  Paul Currie, Cape Town. 
28 September 2020

Many voices. Greener cities. Better cities.

Episode 1—Biodiversity

We read two stories: Claire Stanford’s “Neither Above Nor Below” and Elizabeth Twist’s “May Apple”. Both stories were prize winners in the original Stories of The Nature of Cities 2099 contest.

The Stories are read by actors Howard Overshown and Dori Legg.

Authors Claire and Elizabeth are then joined for conversation by ICLEI’s Paul Currie from the Biodiversity Centre in Cape Town.

“Neither Above Nor Below”
Hasan chases a turtle around the waterways of a flooded Jakarta.
Read by Howard Overshown

“May Apple”
Sammie receives her seeds to look after on her 21st birthday.
Read by Dori Legg

 

“Stories of the Nature of Cities 1/2 Hour” is a monthly series of readings from TNOC’s collection of very short fiction about future cities. Each episode is 30 minutes and features two readings and then a conversation between the authors and an urban practitioner.

The stories are drawn from the book of flash fiction (less than 1000 words) on future cities TNOC and partners created, called “A Flash of Silver Green”.

 
 
Our sponsors and partners:
Elizabeth Twist

About the Writer:
Elizabeth Twist

Elizabeth Twist writes speculative fiction, some of it dark, some of it dreamy. She loves the wobbly line that separates the known from the unknown. Her work has appeared in NonBinary Review, AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, and most recently in The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Find her on Twitter @elizabethtwist.

Paul Currie

About the Writer:
Paul Currie

Paul Currie is a Director of the Urban Systems Unit at ICLEI Africa. He is a researcher of African urban resource and service systems, with interest in connecting quantitative analysis with storytelling and visual elicitation.

Claire Stanford

About the Writer:
Claire Stanford

Claire Miye Stanford is a PhD candidate in English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and her fiction has appeared in The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and Tin House Flash Fridays, among other publications

Claire Stanford

Claire Stanford

Claire Miye Stanford's fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, Third Coast, Redivider, Paper Darts, and Tin House Flash Fridays, among other publications. Her work has received fellowships and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and is currently a PhD candidate in English at UCLA, where she studies science fiction/speculative fiction, narrative theory, and novel theory. Born and raised in Berkeley, she lives in Los Angeles.