The Remembered City
GEOFFREY HEPTONSTALL visits the streets of Shelagh Delaney’s Salford: ‘Neither straightforward autobiography nor wholly imagined fiction could achieve the clarity that these distilled moments of life evoke…’
Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra
GRAHAM A. LANDON explores the story behind the stories of Washington Irving’s ‘Tales of the Alhambra’: ‘Unlike many collections of short stories, Irving’s book is not merely a selection of random tales, but is rather an intricate network of interconnected fables, many forming stories within stories, some supplemented by the author’s own imagination, and some derived from his actual experiences at the location.’
Getting Intimate with Place
STORY DISCUSSION: Author MARY O’DONNELL discusses the importance of place in the short story: ‘…That’s what’s needed when we consider ‘place’. A knowledge of it as intimate as our own skin, and a sense of how to get behind that skin as we turn the wheels of imagination and bring into being a work which will be all the more memorable for having been defined by place.’
Short Story Masterclass with… Mark Haddon
PODCAST: In the second instalment of this year’s Short Story Masterclass podcasts, Jac Cattaneo talks with award-winning author Mark Haddon about relishing havoc, writing into the gaps left by mythology, exploring the landscape of the body, and leaving the reader guessing.
Haunted State
As Halloween approaches, BRENDAN O’DEA delves into the pages of Irish Ghost Stories, edited by David Stuart Davies: ‘this anthology provokes in me a sense of pride for the Irish ghost story, and reminds me that there is something cathartic about a well-written story where the protagonist is completely transformed as a result of an encounter with a ghostly presence…’
Katherine Mansfield – A Cruel Talent?
DAVID BUTLER finds cruelty in the pages of Katherine Mansfield’s stories: ‘I would argue that Mansfield’s aesthetic is frequently more disquieting, even cruel – in the sense that her acquaintance D. H. Lawrence called Dostoevsky’s talent cruel…’
Story: ‘The Bearded Lady’ by Annelies Verbeke
STORY: We are delighted to offer you ‘The Bearded Lady’, a short story in translation from Belgian author Annelies Verbeke: ‘Just as no one can combat the greying of the population by dying their hair, so Emmy Debeuckelaer could not keep her sorrow at bay by giving herself a good shave…’
Brokeback Mountain: Masculinity, Romance, and Perspective
SHORT STORY ADAPTATIONS: this month, Dr. CHRIS MACHELL looks at Annie Proulx’s short story, Brokeback Mountain: ‘Proulx’s describes the environment as a fundamentally masculine space where its value is measured in its utility rather than its beauty. In contrast, Lee’s visuals tend towards the romantic…’
A Magical Discovery of Magic Realism
JANIS LANE discovers the magic of Magic Realism on the streets of Montmartre, in the Marcel Aymé short story ‘The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls’: ‘The worlds Aymé creates are characterised by the familiar sights of town and country, where strange and unusual habitants exist alongside regular people who, in turn, often act absurdly. Storylines follow a straightforward narrative, but contain elements of the fantastic while also retaining a logical thread…’
Taking Sides
NICOLE MANSOUR finds the power of protest in this Comma Press anthology: ‘In the twenty short stories that follow, the history of British protest is revealed through well-researched and historically accurate fiction, and this continuum, this flow between movements, is strikingly uncovered…’