Canary Wharf has joined forces with one of the world’s leading publishing houses, Penguin Books, to re-launch its hugely popular Short Story Stations.
Across the next year new stories, poems and extracts will be available to print at each station in Canary Wharf’s Crossrail Place Roof Garden and Jubilee
Place. The Penguin-curated stories have been written by some of the brand’s top selling authors including Salman Rushdie and Lavina Mehta, which can all be read for free.
Celebrating established and new authors alike whilst also championing diversity and inclusion throughout, different stories will be themed to go live at key
moments in the year such as South Asian Heritage Month, Black History Month and LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
With the partnership launching during South Asian Heritage Month this July, Canary Wharf visitors can now get their hands on extracts from books by authors
from the South Asian diaspora including Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireworld and Naina Kumar’s
Say You’ll Be My Jaan.
This is not the first time Penguin Books has given their readers access to their works in vending machines. Back at the very start, founder Sir Allen Lane
created the Penguin sixpenny paperback which readers were able to pick up at train stations, corner shops and vending machines across the country. The aim was to make quality literature affordable and accessible to all – just as it is doing at Canary Wharf
today.
Since Britain’s first ever Short Story Stations were launched in Canary Wharf in 2019, visitors have printed more than 250,000 free pieces of writing, with
the standard collection spanning a vast range of stories and poems from recognised classic tales to newer works.
At the touch of a button, visitors can print one, three, or five-minute-long stories onto eco-friendly paper, with the tales covering a variety of genres
from crime to comedy and everything in between – ideal for commuters who are tired of Instagram scrolling on the train, or for those looking for a quick read on their way back from the shops.
Camilla McGregor, Arts & Events Manager at CWG said:
“We’re delighted
to have partnered with Penguin Books for the re-launch of our Short Story Stations, offering free accessible literature from established and new authors alike. The stations offer visitors the chance to immerse themselves in a story, even if they only have
a few minutes to spare. People of South Asian heritage make up one of the largest minority ethnic groups in the UK, with our London Borough of Tower Hamlets being home to a large Bangladeshi population – so South Asian Heritage Month is the perfect time to
launch this new partnership here at Canary Wharf, offering us the chance to spotlight stories from authors with a South Asian background, celebrating and honouring the community we are part of.”
