STEPHEN DEVEREUX searches for Helen Harris, a quiet revolutionary in short story writing: ‘Short stories have characters, right? This one doesn’t. And one of them is the central character, yes? Not in this story. And short stories have plots, don’t they? Well there’s a plot of sorts, I suppose…’
CLAIRE THURLOW presents a thoughtful profile on the life and writing of short story master Alice Munro: ‘Compared to Chekhov for her flair with the genre, Munro reveals essential truths about ourselves in an unsentimental, yet deeply humane way…’
Runner-up in the Thresholds Feature Writing Competition: GILL THOMPSON recommends the short fiction of Katherine Mansfield: ‘The very best short story writers, and Katherine Mansfield is clearly one of these, can distill a profound theme into a word or phrase…’
Runner-up in the Thresholds Feature Writing Competition: DAN POWELL recommends Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s graphic short story collection The Push Man and Other Stories: ‘Each time I return to my well worn Drawn and Quarterly edition, I am struck by their undiminished capacity to unnerve…’
We are delighted to announce the results of the 2014 THRESHOLDS International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition…
COMPETITION SHORTLIST: ‘This year our team of judges found a very high quality of writing across the board, with vibrant and insightful pieces that captivated us, surprised us and even challenged our preconceptions…
‘It was one of the most powerful pieces of writing I had ever come across and, despite the beauty of the language, I found myself unable to re-read it for a long time…’ Thresholds editorial assistant DAVID FRANKEL recommends the stories in David Foster Wallace’s collection Oblivion.
Over the past few weeks, the team of THRESHOLDS judges has been busy reading and re-reading the entries, debating and deliberating. Finally, we bring you.… The 2014 THRESHOLDS Features Award longlist.
THRESHOLDS EXCLUSIVE: Guardian columnist and short story writer Chris Power discusses the state of the short story and why the dominant narrative of imminent death or blazing renaissance should be rejected…
MIKE SMITH discusses the adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s short stories into films: ‘They have not necessarily damaged the story. What they have done, though, is to radically change its message…’