The Alpine city of Grenoble has scored a surprising hit with automatic dispensers that offer free printed short stories

A flight of the imagination is transforming one of the banes of French life — waiting for service in state offices — into an opportunity to immerse oneself in the written word. The Alpine city of Grenoble has scored a surprising hit with automatic dispensers that offer free printed short stories to citizens waiting for their bout with bureaucracy.

The city of Grenoble, France, is testing the first models of a local startup’s short-story vending machine.Photograph by Pauline Bock

When Jess Mateychuk entered the tourism office in Grenoble, France, he wasn’t looking for information about the city. “I finally found them!” the twenty-one-year-old exchange student from Winnipeg, Canada, said with excitement. He was referring to the city’s recent cultural innovation turned Internet hit: a black and orange, rocket-looking cylinder that spits out short stories, free of charge.

Journey’s the end ... a short story vending machine in Grenoble. Photograph: AFP JP Clatot

A publisher is doing brisk business dispensing free fiction from machines in Grenoble, to help readers make the most of ‘dead time’ on their journeys.
Readers in Grenoble can now nibble fiction instead of vending machine snacks, after publisher Short Édition introduced eight short-story dispensers around the French city.

Un éditeur isérois a imaginé des bornes qui délivrent des nouvelles, des poèmes ou des microfictions sous forme de tickets. En voilà une bonne idée.

Marre d'attendre son tour à la préfecture, à la CAF ou à la mairie, le nez plongé dans son Smartphone ? Le 7 octobre dernier, Short Edition, un éditeur communautaire grenoblois spécialisé dans la littérature courte, a décidé de changer la donne en installant des « distributeurs  d'histoires ». L'idée est aussi simple qu'ingénieuse : des bornes qui, sur simple pression d'un bouton, délivrent des nouvelles, des poèmes ou des microfictions sous forme de tickets, en trois formats (1, 3 et 5 min).