Whether seeking knowledge, riches, or a better life, the characters in Jo Lloyd's debut collection, The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies, are united by a quest for lasting value, as they ask how we should treat our world, our work, our selves, and each other. The stories are lyrical, compassionate, full of wit and truth.

Many Rivers to Cross by Dylan Moore traces a series of migrations, from Wales to Calais, and from Ethiopia to Lampedusa. Aman is a failed asylum seeker, David a journalist, Jasmine is a sex worker, Mike is a lorry driver, Claudie is a churchgoer, Selam is a single mother, Solomon a refugee. And Gareth is dead. When Aman goes missing, presumed drowned in the river Usk in Wales, David embarks on an unexpected journey, ending face down in the dust of Addis Ababa. When Mike crosses the Channel, unaware of four men stowed in the back of his lorry, he has no idea Solomon will turn up at his local pub. And when Selam feels the first flutter of life inside her, she could not begin to imagine her daughter flying high – a poet-princess of their strange new homeland. The author is a former Hay Festival International Fellow.