The international literary craze is now coming to Perth, with its very own Short Story Station located in Raine Square.

Perth is set to become the first Australian city to permanently hero the international literary trend: the very, very short story. The short story dispensing machines that distribute a variety of one, three or five-minute stories are the brainchild Short Edition, a French community publisher of short-form literature and will find its home at Raine Square from Friday 16 October.

The Short Story Dispenser at University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is excited to participate in the Short Édition Long Story Short Award, its first annual inter-university writing contest. Short Édition is a French publishing house who UTA Libraries partners with in hosting a Short Story Dispenser on the second floor of Central Library. This Dispenser provides short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry to the public, free of charge. “We are proud to partner with Short Édition and can’t wait to see what our students submit to the Long Story Short Award,” said Rebecca Bichel, dean of UTA Libraries. “Mavericks are innovative and creative, and we are confident that they will excel in this inaugural contest.”

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If you’ve not been around Canary Wharf recently, you might have missed its intriguing literary initiative Short Story Stations. Launched last year, the project sees vending machines installed around the financial district that allow office workers, commuters and other stressed-out ‘here’s the projection for Q3’ types to press a button and get a short story dispensed to them.

Kailani Clark Lay and her short story, “A Mustang’s Decision,” printed by Bud Werner Memorial Library’s Short Story Dispenser. courtesy of Kailani Clark Lay

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Colorado’s first short story dispenser has a new author in its mix, and the journey that her piece took to get there is a story in itself. When Kailani Clark Lay heard about Bud Werner Memorial Library’s short fiction contest last summer, she got right to work. Kailani, who’s currently in sixth grade at Steamboat Springs Middle School, often reads books about horses and is a horseback rider herself. Last summer, she trained a horse named Pendleton, and the two formed a close connection. Her short story begins with a girl who adopts a mustang.

Bringing a new meaning to the term “snackable content”, in September, the University of Lincoln installed free vending machines dispensing passages from classic novels or poems instead of packets of crisps.

A short story dispenser at WaterPark Place lets users choose how many minutes they want to read then spits out a story for free. copyright D. Dundas

Looking for a story to read your kid before bed? Don’t want to look at your device over your coffee break? Need a read for the commute? Near the foot of Bay Street and Queens Quay, just outside the food court, near the pedestrian overpass to Union Station, you’ll notice a machine. It was installed just about two months ago by a forward-looking team from Oxford Properties, which runs the building, led by general manager Beverly Tay.

Upon entering Earl Gregg Swem Library, most of us head straight to our favorite work areas, in a rush to either secure a table on the first floor for meetings or more casual studying, or to claim a desk on the second and third floors for a quieter study session. No matter the case, in our focused frenzies, we tend to miss the short story dispenser situated to the left of the library entrance along the elevator wall. The little machine, with its backlit panel and dark base, prints short stories from a wide range of genres onto receipt-like slips of paper after readers have selected their preferred length of story, either one, three or five minutes long.

Short story dispensers print 5-minute reads for travelers. (Oakland International Airport)

Put down your phone and find a seat. It’s time to print out a free short story and read it while you wait for your flight. Last month, Oakland International Airport unveiled two short-story dispensers for passengers in both its terminals.

Oakland International Airport (OAK) is partnering with innovative French company Short Édition to provide free Short Story Dispensers to engage passengers while they wait for flights.

The machines print a few lines taken randomly from a database of 100,000 titles

Free vending machines that dispense words instead of chocolate have been installed at the University of Lincoln. The two machines print a few paragraphs from a classic novel or a poem taken randomly from a database of 100,000 titles.

Short Story Dispenser at Lincoln University - A snack for your mind - SWNS

This university has become the first in the United Kingdom to install vending machines that are designed to dispense free short stories for students to read on campus—and any writer will soon be able to submit their own prose.