After a slightly hectic journey across town, on which I was joined for several blocks by a random family of tourists looking for a Fringe venue on George Street, I’m squished into the Writer’s Retreat again – this time for an event with writers Andre Mangeot and Miroslav Penkov.

Andre, a Cambrige-based writer, reads first: two short stories from his collection True North, which totals seven stories in seven locations. He’s chosen a vivid scene set during a thunderstorm in a Romanian logging town; next comes a description of a city in the Sahara populated with shadows, narrow, sandy streets and elusive people. His landscapes are evocative and full of the unexpected, while the physicality of his characters in their environment is realistic and brutal.

Miroslav, originally from Bulgaria and now a Texas-based professor of creative writing who cheerfully tells us he’s never read in front of an audience, reads a short story from his collection East of West. It’s about Bulgarian family life, affected by the central character’s intention to emigrate. His work carries sharp, dry humour and his characters, as well as the wider society and political spectrum, are made vivid by descriptions of everyday habits and spare dialogue.

The authors are candid and likeable, and field questions thoughtfully. “My homesickness took the shape of stories,” Miroslav tells us. He was so focused on emigration to the US when he began writing in Bulgaria that he populated his short stories with American characters, causing the work to fall flat. His writing, he tells, began to take shape during his first few years in the US; stranded in the south without a car (an essential item), he began writing about home.

Andre’s interest in cultural and geographic exploration gives shape to his work, and this collection of short stories is a sampling of unexpected locations. On the subject of writing poetry and prose, he tells us he writes one or the other, but not both. For prose, he tells us, rhythm takes on great importance, and part of his editorial process is to read the work aloud to himself.

Despite the critical success of both writers, a lot of the people I’ve spoken with aren’t familiar with their work. Such is the world of books. I hope these two writers will gain more attention in the future.