Harry Dobbs

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology 2025 is out now in print and digital (link here), and included inside is my award-shortlisted story, ‘Now’.

I started writing fiction as a career about a year ago. I left the corporate world and got a job at a pub, where I remain. When I’m not there, I’m writing.

Sometime this year, after many rejections, I changed how I create stories. Desperate to be published, I began taking my shame and insecurities, the parts of myself I hate (there are many), and using these things for inspiration.

In summer, an online literary journal called EGG+FROG agreed to publish one of my pieces, and then another. I decided my approach was working.

My favourite song – this is relevant – is ‘Sara’ by Fleetwood Mac. Right at the end, as it fades to silence, Stevie Nicks sings “Would you swallow all your pride?”

“Swallow all your pride” for what? The song is about love, but the question is relevant for anything. I enjoy seeing it as referring to the pursuit of ambition. My answer is ‘Yes’, and I remind myself of this most days.

‘Now’, and all its sordidness, both is and isn’t based on my life, and it doesn’t really matter. Either way, I believe it’s truthful.