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. 

The Short Édition fiction dispensers print out stories that take one, three or five minutes to read. Courtesy BART / BART

In an attempt to regain attention after a pandemic ridership drop, BART is willing to try anything — including commissioning new literary works.

The transit agency has started soliciting entries for a short fiction contest, the finalists of which will be available via story dispensers on BART platforms to be printed and read during a train ride home.

“(People) don’t think about BART and art. We’re trying to change that,” said BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. “So many transit systems across the world have beautiful art, and we’re trying to find ways we can afford right now to bring art in the stations.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- While kids are commuting with their parents, SEPTA hopes families will use that time to discover the joy of reading. They kicked off the colorful, story-filled literacy campaign Wednesday in South Philadelphia called "Come Aboard the Reading Promise."

The Short-Story Dispenser resides at The Station coffee shop on Beacon Hill, for stories on demand.

Customers of The Station coffee shop on Beacon Hill can now grab a free story to read with their cup of joe.
The Seattle Public Library’s first short-story dispenser, produced by French publishing company Short Édition and supported by donors to the Foundation, was installed at the café near the Beacon Hill light rail station in December.

There’s a new kind of vending machine on the South Coast that pops out literature. The Squire Foundation and the Santa Barbara Public Market are introducing the Short Edition Short Story Dispenser to the Santa Barbara Community.

The Short Story Stations at Canary Wharf are the first of their kind in the UK

AWARD-WINNING author, poet and activist Bernardine Evaristo has joined forces with Canary Wharf to make short stories from up and coming black authors available for free to thousands of people throughout Black History Month.

The Booker Prize winner has selected five black authors to have their stories published in Canary Wharf’s Short Story Stations – the innovative vending machines that will dispense one, three and five minute stories for free to help raise the profile of black writers.

DAVID PARRY/PA

Irenosen Okojie, Bernardine Evaristo and Nicola Williams unveil their short stories, which have been added to the Short Story Stations at Canary Wharf, London, to celebrate Black History Month

Black Britain: Writing Back with Bernardine Evaristo, Short Story Stations, Canary Wharf London, photogr. David Parry, PA Media

Award-winning author, poet and activist Bernardine Evaristo has joined forces with Canary Wharf to make short stories from up and coming black authors available for free to thousands of people throughout Black History Month. The Booker Prize winner has selected five black authors to have their stories published in Canary Wharf’s Short Story Stations – the innovative vending machines that will dispense one, three and five minute stories for free to help raise the profile of black writers.

You can choose stories by reading time or genre—and they're all free!

NYC has its share of vending machines, from ones that dispense PPE to others that dole out designer handbags. Now, the city can add a Short Story Dispenser to the list. Choosing from three categories of short stories, visitors to the Center For Fiction in Brooklyn can "push" a touchless button and the machine will dispense a scroll with a randomly chosen story for free.

Amaranthe Ivory Violeta pushes her long bangs out of her eyes as I set up my recorder and MacBook on the fourth floor of Central Library. The floor is still closed and being reset for fall 2021, so it’s eerily empty but for us. She holds an orange pencil—blunt from all the writing she has done this week—and a green leatherette journal in her lap, the matching ribbon bookmark draped lazily across her high-waisted shirt. “It’s a neat concept,” she says, describing Short Edition in a quiet voice. The French publisher has recently selected her poem, “Lunar Love,” for publication in its novel dispensers,