It’s a pleasure to have Tabitha Bast feature again here at Urban Pigs for our ‘Revolt’ series. Her short story, XYZ, creates an imagined future but the parallels with what’s happening in the world today are crystal clear.

Tabitha, what specifically was the inspiration behind it?

XYZ was written just after some dear old friends from the glorious 90s had been to visit. We were all very politically active in our 20s and 30s; now we’re in our 50s and many with caring responsibilities above or below or both. I was imagining what we’d be like in another 20 years because most of us keep our hands in to the ‘revolting’ life in some ways, whether it’s the odd bit of shoplifting in easy places like M&S, or going on demos for Rojava, or still plugging away with the Spycops trial — info here: https://www.spycops.co.uk/

Any plans to build it out into something longer?

XYZ is from my short story collection, Tipping Point, which is about relational tipping points against a backdrop of social and ecological crisis. These stories are set in the very near future, and involve floods or wildfires or food shortages: Welcome to the World! Many are set in Yorkshire, which is where I’m lucky enough to live.

Name one novel or short story you’ve read in the last couple of years that absolutely blew you away?

Brits aren’t in love with short stories the way they should be but the Irish really rock them. Kevin Barry’s Dark Lies the Island is an absolute gem that I’ve discovered recently. Also, I just really want to big up Urban Pigs Press for putting out some consistently excellent short stories, I really enjoy the batches that come out each call out!

What theme / topic would you choose for the next UPP sub window and why?

‘Collapse’ — be it ecological or personal would be a fun one. I also would be voting for ‘2030’ or ‘Tomorrow’ for some terrible, horrible near future predictions.

What writing projects do you have on for 2026?

I’m submitting Tipping Point to some indie publishers, and also finally putting up all my stories on a website once I work out the techy bits. I really need to get back to my blog theboysarealright.substack.com and I’m excited at the prospect of doing a hybrid work of this political memoir plus fiction and that sounds dead exciting albeit totally unpublishable, so will be a DIY venture. I also host monthly retreats in Bradford for Writers HQ and am delivering a couple of workshops with them online this year too.

Tipping Point sounds great so good luck with it and thanks for the Urban Pigs shout-out.

Next time I’m in M&S, I’ll be paying much closer attention to the clientele to see what they’re doing with their profiterole stacks.

I’ll be ordering a copy of Dark Lies the Island too.

If you missed it, do read Tabitha’s story, XYZ, here https://urbanpigspress.co.uk/2026/01/25/xyz-tabitha-bast/