Small Street Press

Click here for ILGA's Rankings of European Countries in 2025 The International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) recently updated their ranking of European countries by LGBT+ advocacy. The United Kingdom topped this list a decade ago, but this year it dropped to 22nd place. There appears to be a lag in the minds of those who are not directly affected - an unkillable rhetoric that, whatever happens, the United Kingdom is one of the safest and happiest places in the world. It has its issues, but doesn't every country? Well, I think it's worth examining the other 21 countries who out-gayed us this year, and coming in second on the list was Belgium And you could feel it. You hadn't been to the country since a school trip in year nine, which if I'm not mistaken, was spent pining over your best friend and shamelessly flirting in front of war memorials, rather than soaking in the culture. The highlight had been when the history department - famed for thei...

 Pulp Fiction Thinking a little too deeply about the act of making paper By Lucy Coleman The surface of the soaked and blended cardboard feels like the inside of someone's cheek. It is grey-brown and minced to a texture which you cannot help but think, if s tewed with some rosemary and oregano, would make a beautiful Bolognese. You run your hand through its uncomfortable softness, and nothing clings to your fingers. Occasionally though, a word appears, floating up from the impenetrable darkness, translucent like the lost wing of a dragonfly.  We had diced and added  the Waste Land to the pot,   being English students. In between the lines,  Prufrock had melted, stanza on stanza.  It was sacrilegious, yes. Pretentious also. But the shavings of three years' printouts were desperate to reform themselves. Freed from their metric bounds they rejected one another, each finding their own meaning. Over and over from the cloudy water rose 'I begin?' 'I begin?' 'I be...

A Graphic Narrative by Annie Clarke