STORY DISCUSSION: Author MARY O’DONNELL discusses the nature of speculative, futuristic fiction: ‘Writing short stories set in the future carries the exact same responsibility as writing short stories set in the present or past. The only difference is that one must convince the prospective reader that the world into which they’ve been invited has some relevance and possibility for them, that it catches a trigger-point of their imagination and allows them to consider such scenarios in all seriousness…’
Carmen Machado’s short story ‘The Husband Stitch’ evokes both physical and emotional responses for KATE JONES: ‘Even within her chosen title, Carmen Maria Machado sets a scene for a story which is bound to question, provoke and, if you are any sort of feminist, anger…’
JAQUELINE SAVILLE finds the weird and wonderful in two of Neil Gaiman’s short stories: ‘The detail of the everyday backdrop makes each story feel grounded in reality, there’s an emphasis on how mundane it all is – pension day, gardening, an imagined infidelity, the Yellow Pages – then the whole situation, and more importantly the reader’s expectations, get flipped by the introduction of one piece of weird…’
Following a ground-breaking period of publishing and support – both national and international – for the short story, it is with regret we must announce that THRESHOLDS will no longer be accepting submissions or publishing new content. The University of Chichester is proud to have supported this project and continues to value its significant resources and unique archive of materials about the short story form and its writers. Sadly, Thresholds will cease activity from 02 October 2018.
LOREE WESTRON is getting ready for the Small Wonder Festival at Charleston House. Here, she provides a brief overview of the festival and looks at some of the highlights visitors can expect…
STORY: We are delighted to bring you ‘An Armenian in Dublin’, a short story from Irish author Mary O’Donnell: ‘Galo and me have made our way home from the town’s newest watering hole, the Bogota Bar, which describes itself in the local paper as “a meeting point for all things Latino —music, dance & the best of vino!” Someone had hung castanets on the walls, along with pictures of flamenco dancers, and posters of bulls…’
PODCAST: In the first instalment of the sixth series of our Short Story Masterclass podcasts, Zoe Gilbert interviews award-winning author Adam Marek, discussing the distinction between the fantastic and the surreal, childhood influences, and where stories start and how they develop…
STORY: We are delighted to bring you CECILIA DAVIDSSON’s short story ‘High Mountains, Deep Valleys’, translated for the first time into English: ‘We drive into Grimsdalen after putting seventy Norwegian kronor into a roadside box by the barrier, and as the landscape opens up I hear Nils from the back seat saying something in a gruff voice. He’s not spoken a word since we got into the car this morning…’
SHORT STORY ADAPTATIONS: this month, Dr. CHRIS MACHELL examines Roger Corman’s gothic adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: ‘House of Usher is perhaps Corman’s most interesting adaptation in that, departing quite drastically from Poe’s narrative, it still captures the excess of Poe’s gothic aesthetic. Retaining the histrionics of Poe’s story, Corman’s House of Usher represents Poe’s imaginative hyper-reality with vivid, saturated colour, a wildly over the top central performance from Vincent Price, and a pulpy, kitsch sensibility…’
MIKE SMITH finds a short story hidden in the pages of Arthur Miller’s autobiography: ‘I got the distinct sense that I was reading a very good, well-structured and polished short story … a story beautifully told, with a clear beginning…’
