“Reading habits may have changed a great deal. But people still tell each other stories the same way they always have. It remains one of the most universal and human of endeavors. We sense the conflict, steel ourselves for the climax, and marvel at the denouement and resolution. Without even knowing it, we yearn for the enchantment; we long to read a tale that turns on a curve or halts at a twist, at once, a surprise, a mystery and a truth. We all still love a good story. Regardless of the genre, in this quick deft form, there resides magic…This is what sixty-eight writers have done here, whether by happenstance or by sheer, dogged craft.”

– Noelle Q. de Jesus, from the Preface