Fernando Sdrigotti

The very best fiction from Open Pen Magazine between 2016 and 2021.

At a secluded weekend home, a girl becomes entranced by the sound of the cicadas, as she grapples with the stifling summer heat, and her mother’s recent death.Overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding, a young man seeks solace in a privatised cathedral, comically navigating religious bureaucracy, economic crisis, and existential angst.A journey to scatter his grandparents’ ashes turns into a tragicomedy, as an unnamed man explores the changes in the city he left behind.A Foreign Country is the Past is the sensorial new collection from the acclaimed author of Jolts. Centering on identity and memory, viewed through a distinctive Argentine lens, these fifteen tales are a profound exploration of the spaces between places and the echoes of time.

Nine stories. Nine ways of not being at home. Nine confrontations to the limits of fiction and memoir. Jolts is a playful and honest exploration of the joys and sorrows of lives lived in-between places. A collection that travels across time, space, and language, in order to deliver the gospel of the Latin American short story.

Dr Walter Turner is a wealthy nobody until he accidentally slays a protected lion on the plains of Africa. This niche fallout spirals out of control when global news agencies latch onto the story and celebrity outcry coupled with public uproar cultivates the perfect social media shitstorm. Will Dr Walter Turner ride this one out? Will he face a public execution? Will tomorrow’s fresh shitstorm save his pants? One thing’s certain: no one is coming out of this clean.