A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Short Édition began in Grenoble, in 2011, when four founders set out to reinvent how short fiction is published and shared, first in France, then around the world. Their shared conviction: stories matter, authors deserve to be showcased and paid for their work, and readers everywhere deserve access to those stories for free.

That conviction still drives us today. We love the short story, a form as old as storytelling itself and perfectly suited to modern life. We noticed something, though. People were reading less for pleasure, yet everyday life was still full of idle moments: on a train platform, in a hospital waiting room, in the ten minutes before a flight boards. Those moments are where big ideas are born, and we believed every one of them deserved a story.

We built an ever-growing library of original work by independent authors. Then we asked ourselves a question: what if a story could find its reader, instead of the other way around?

Today we are a team of 15 in Grenoble, Paris and New York. We are editors, engineers, designers and storytellers, all driven by the same ambition: to promote reading and writing, and to prove that technology can serve culture rather than compete with it.

Our Mission

As an international publishing house, in a time where reading for pleasure is at an all time low, our mission is to address this challenge. Through innovative mediums, that open access to literature, we allow our partners to create connections, offer knowledge and culture, bring joy to their communities and progress society. Because big ideas are often born in idle moments when reading a short story, poem, or comic strip.

The Story Behind the Story

With a little creativity and a lot of R&D, our answer took shape: the Short Story Dispenser. Press a button, choose a 1-, 3- or 5-minute read, and it prints an original short story on an eco-friendly paper scroll. It is completely free for the reader. No screen, no app, no subscription, just a story to hold in your hands.

The first dispenser appeared in Grenoble in October 2015 and was the topic of a huge media storm and reached the ears of a famous short story publisher, Francis Ford Coppola. He immediately decided to get one for his literary Café Zoetrope in San Francisco, and later for his wineries in Napa Valley for international visitors.