Local & Regional: Short Stories to Read

Godn, Hoggn, and the Ausgeding

by Rudi

Rudi runs a butcher shop in Hallstatt and serves as deputy guild master, guarding the cultural heritage of the Salzkammergut region – from an untranslatable dialect to centuries-old guild traditions. He turned down an investor's offer because he understands that words like 'Godn,' 'Hoggn,' and 'Ausgeding' would vanish with him once no one is left who truly speaks them. The story distills the quiet drama of cultural loss into a single man standing in his grandfather's traditional dress during the Corpus Christi procession.

Felix

by Thomas

Minus eight degrees, wrong presentation, two vets asleep. Thomas calls his father. The calf stands after nineteen minutes. It's called Felix now. He looks at Thomas like he remembers nothing.

Yorkshire

by NigelA

Yorkshire gets treated as a punchline by people who've never been. What it actually is: large, varied, full of towns with opinions about each other. Nigel: Skipton, Harrogate, Bradford — three places, three identities. Agreed on one thing: the rest of England is fine, if you like that sort of thing.

Brno vs. Prague

by Jakub

Brno: second-largest city, 200km from Prague. Prague makes jokes about Brno. Brno makes them about itself first. Jakub moved back after two years. Why? Because Brno is funnier. They thought he was joking. He wasn't.