Feature Writing Competition 2017
NOW CLOSED: You have until Sunday 05 March, 11:59pm (GMT) to submit your feature essays for the 2017 THRESHOLDS International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition…
Refugee Tales
HANNAH BROCKBANK recommends the anthology that explores the experiences of refugees and those who work with them, REFUGEE TALES: ‘In tale after tale, physical environments are unforgiving and divisive. Conflicts are both physical and moral, and there is little resolution for the people described. The tales are challenging and resonate long after reading, not only because of their traumatic content, but also in the way they confront our attitudes and responsibilities to our fellow humans…’
An Interview with KJ Orr
KJ ORR, winner of the 2016 BBC National Short Story Award, speaks to us about her love of the short story form: ‘Short stories ask the reader to pay attention: I love that. Put another way, they value the reader, the reader’s imagination, engagement and attention. I find this both moving and important – profoundly connective…’
Festive Story: Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Blue Carbuncle’
FESTIVE STORY: Rounding off the THRESHOLDS year, we bring you a festive treat in the form of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Christmassy short story ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’…
Capote’s Christmas
ANUSHREE NANDE recommends Truman Capote’s ‘A Christmas Memory’: ‘Capote is a master of evocative simplicity that makes even the ordinary shine and sparkle until you feel like you know the characters intimately…’
Short Story Masterclass with… Kevin Barry
PODCAST: Jac Cattaneo talks with award-winning author Kevin Barry about the short story’s lack of room for maneuver, the timing and rhythm of stories, mystery in your writing, and the relationship of memory to imagination…
Captain Knot
MIKE SMITH has a close look at Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s short story ‘Captain Knot’: ‘Q is a straightforward writer in many ways, but his simple, accessible language carries subtleties of meaning that raise questions we, rather than he, are to answer…’
Defining the Ballardian
KATE KRAKE explores the mammoth influence of J.G. Ballard: ‘We tremble at the draconian control of the Orwellian. We muse over the strange nightmares of the Kafkaesque. Some among us might even risk the dark, unknowable madness of the Lovecraftian. But what of the Ballardian…?’
A Cold Hand: The Stories Of Robert Aickman
FRANCES GAPPER discusses the life and stories of Robert Aickman: ‘Aickman thought the ghost story akin to poetry in its compression and intensity, and his work has been described as ‘English Eerie’ and ‘English Kafka’…’
Everything Makes Its Mark: the Stories of Shelagh Delaney
DAVID FRANKEL rediscovers the forgotten short stories of Shelagh Delaney: ‘the vitality of her stories comes from her extraordinary talent for dialogue. She captures the rhythm of rapid conversation between characters – the firing back and forth and its underlying humour…’