Literature Dispenser at St Luke’s Hospital, Dublin (photo courtesy of Ema Stanton)

To celebrate National Poetry Day on 27 April and Dublin International Literature Festival in May, Ema Staunton, Arts Co-ordinator of St Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network, has introduced a literature dispenser, a novel way of sharing original short stories, poetry and comics with patients and staff

The Short Story Dispenser acts as a kind of vending machine for stories — a library within a library. (Anna Schwartz / Staff Photographer)

At Emory University’s Woodruff Library, stories don’t just live on the shelves. They exist in The Short Story Dispenser, printed on glossy receipts and dispensed with the click of a button. 

 They exist in The Short Story Dispenser, printed on glossy receipts and dispensed with the click of a button. Students who stroll through the library basement may find themselves face to face with the quirky new machine just outside of Banjo Coffee. 

A metal cylinder with three buttons and a tall glass rectangle with the words “Short Story Dispenser,” the machine’s instructions are simple: “Select, Read, Enjoy.” As of Feb. 13, Emory’s new toy for voracious readers and procrastination-prone students alike has finally arrived on campus. 

Wichita engineer Kim Burton, a senior manager in product support for Textron Aviation, was at the Eisenhower National Airport on Wednesday flying out to California to a conference for women in aviation and discovered one of the Wichita Public Library’s sh

Wichita engineer Kim Burton is so popular on TikTok that when asked about views for one video she posted this week, she casually said, “I think we’re at, like, a half million for today.”

Maynooth University's new Short Story Dispenser

At Maynooth University Library a new machine can been seen in reception called a 'Short Story Dispenser'. It spits out poetry, short stories and graphics on receipt paper. They last one, three or five mins. Some fun, some serious. The machine was developed in France by Short Editions and is slowly going global at hotels, airports and libraries.

Henry McKean spoke with a short story writer and visited Maynooth University and met the students trying out the machine with the librarians...

Short Story Dispenser

Travelers flying through Eugene Airport can now pick up free reading at a new short story dispenser provided in a partnership between the Airport, Eugene Public Library and Eugene Public Library Foundation.
People of all ages can use a touch-free button to choose Local, International, or For Kids options, then receive a free short story or poem printed on demand like a receipt using ink-free recycled paper. 

BAY AREA - For the past year and a half, BART has actively worked to convert its ridership into a readership with a free in-station short story dispensing system at a handful of stations.

Launched in January 2021, the Short Story Dispenser kiosks have delivered 17,198 short stories to riders at the Richmond, Fruitvale, Balboa Park and Pleasant Hill stations, according to BART officials.

The stories are written to be read within one, three or five minutes and are printed by the no-touch kiosks on recyclable paper, BART officials said in a news release Monday.

"What pushed us to really move this project forward is that the Bay Area has such a wealth of bookstores, readers and writers," said BART Art Program Manager Jennifer Easton.

San Francisco's transit system hopes short stories printed on receipts for riders will benefit both commuters and creative writers.

Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read? Yes, we all have our phones, but many of us still like to go old school and read something printed.

Well, there's a kiosk for that. In the San Francisco Bay Area, at least.

Reynolds demonstrated how to use the Short Story Cube at Dutton/Brady Junior High and High School in Dutton on May 24.

For the first time since the pandemic started, author Jason Reynolds took to the road for his first in-person tour in his role as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a program of the Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader.
Reynolds has held the position since 2020, and he headed to Montana last month to restart his in-person school visits. The tour, under Reynolds’s Grab the Mic: Tell Your Story platform, was in collaboration with digital publisher Short Edition to provide Short Story Cubes, devices that allow students to create, edit, and print stories of their own making. We’ve gathered a selection of photos from the events.

Manoj Simha reads a short story distributed by a newly established kiosk at SEPTA’s Tasker-Morris station. Jack Tomczuk

Underground, at the Broad Street Line’s Tasker-Morris station in South Philadelphia, there’s now a mini-library. Riders, by placing their hand over touchless buttons, can now get free short stories, printed on store receipt-like paper. Many of the tales were written by local students.

The kiosks, which are also at the BSL’s Erie station, are part of a campaign unveiled Wednesday to engage kids and families taking SEPTA — and, ultimately, to boost literacy levels among the city’s children.

Many of us have whiled away the minutes on a bus or a train with a book. Now the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the public transportation authority of San Francisco, is looking to attract riders back to public transportation by distributing short stories at select stations. 

Short Story Dispenser at Pleasant Hill BART Station. Photographer: Maria Avila/BART

In unassuming corners of metro and train stations in cities all over the world, beyond the ticket machines and behind the throngs of people, there are vending machines that spit out stories. Even though I’ve apparently walked past one of the short story dispensers installed in four Bay Area Rapid Transit stations several times, I never knew they existed – until last week.