Fiction. A failed man haunted by his successful past, a woman whose academic career can't hide her alienation and loneliness, a thoughtless young man living for his next sexual conquest: in Cydney Chadwick's new novella BENCHED, these three people move through a world of sinister disconnections in search of something they don't understand and are never going to find. Loosely centered around trips to a Hyde Park bench and a London laundromat at an undefined recent historical moment, BENCHED is a minefield of awkward silences, crude gestures, and small exquisite tortures. Cydney Chadwick, editor of Avec Books and author of works including ENEMY CLOTHING, INSIDE THE HOURS, and INTERIMS, has released BENCHED as part of Avec's new imprint, the Pivotal Prose Series, which thus far features mainly, though not entirely, short fiction about benches.