Water stories
It covers three quarters of our planet and makes up two thirds of our bodies. We thirst for it and bathe in it, but how do the increasing pressures on water supplies from climate change and economic crisis seep into our imagination? The Guardian's short fiction project Water stories asks writers from around the world to distil the essence of modern life, charting the ebb and flow of our cultural existence to explore the element from which we are born and which has inspired writers since Gilgamesh crossed the Waters of Death
Down to a Sunless Sea by Neil Gaiman
A rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in this exclusive story from Neil Gaiman, Down to a Sunless Sea
Chinese fiction is focusing on the fringes – of both map and mind
Woman Fish by Dorothy Tse, translated by Nicky Harman
Don't Kill Me, I Beg You. This is My Tree by Hassan Blasim, translated by Jonathan Wright
The snow is falling in Helsinki as the Tiger tries to escape his past in this short story from Hassan Blasim
Martín Kohan's powerful prose is both public and intensely personal
The Mistake by Martín Kohan, translated by Nick Caistor
Wilderness by Sarah Hall
A coastal walk along an abandoned railway line takes an unexpected turning in Sarah Hall's short story Wilderness
The River of Lost Souls by Isabel Greenberg
A forgotten coin is the beginning of an unusual relationship in a graphic short story from Isabel Greenberg, The River of Lost Souls
The Swimming Pool by Jekwu Anyaegbuna
General Idris Yakubu Haruna is in expansive mood, recounting the ups and downs of his career as the Nigerian Minister of Water Resources in this short story from Jekwu Anyaegbuna
Guardian Books podcast: Literature in translation and water stories
We expand our horizons with the publisher Christopher MacLehose, the French novelist Philippe Claudel and the launch of a series of short stories from writers around the world inspired by water
For our next short story series: we're taking on water
Richard Lea: Writers have long been fascinated by the wet stuff, and now we're opening the floodgates on a series of aquatic-themed short stories
Sea Story by AS Byatt
AS Byatt launches a series of stories inspired by water with Sea Story, a tale of love and environmental disaster
