Back To The Reservoir
NICOLA DALY looks at the life and short stories of Janet Frame: ‘Frame engages her audience by peppering the stories with both tragedy and humour and by using real characters and events to which the reader can relate…’
Editors Dos and Don’ts
GARY BUDDEN and GEORGE SANDISON, the editors of Unsung Stories – publishers of literary and ambitious speculative fiction – share their tips on submitting to literary journals and magazines, and how to accept that dreaded rejection letter.
A Turning Point
MIKE SMITH finds a pivotal turning point in Elizabeth Bowen’s Collected Stories: ‘I’m struck by a sense of Bowen’s trajectory being on a downward curve. Individual stories are strong, but the sense of an ending coming is stronger…’
Antarctica
DORA D’AGOSTINO recommends Laura van den Berg’s short story ‘Antarctica’: ‘As I read, I couldn’t help but think that, though years and continents may separate us, artists are still inspired by death, grief, heartache, loss, joy, surprise, birth, and everything in-between to create something new that speaks directly to us…’
John Fowles: A Rational Magic
GEOFFREY HEPTONSTALL discusses John Fowles’s often overlooked collection, The Ebony Tower: ‘Fowles’s capacity for narrative invention indicates not only charisma, a secular magic, but also an extraordinary comprehension of the human.’
INTERVIEW with Jane Gardam
We are delighted to bring you this exclusive interview with JANE GARDAM, winner of the Charleston-Chichester Award for a Lifetime’s Excellence in Short Fiction, recorded at the Small Wonder Short Story Festival last September…
The Road to Small Wonder
SHORT STORY FESTIVAL: This year, the Small Wonder Festival gets underway on Wednesday 28th September – grown from a long-weekend to a five-day celebration of the exquisite short story form…
When Planets Slip Their Tracks
JULIA ANDERSON tells us of her admiration for Joanna Campbell’s ‘When Planets Slip Their Tracks’: “Every story in When Planets Slip Their Tracks is significant; there is nothing weak or wordy here…Every one of these twenty-four short stories tugged on all of my emotions…”
For Six Cups of Coffee
MADELEINE MCDONALD discusses the influence of city life on the stories of Rainer Brambach: ‘This is a collection where the author stands back, observing, inviting readers to eavesdrop alongside him and draw their own conclusions.’
Rudyard Kipling and the Craft of Fable
PROFESSOR CHARLES E. MAY explores the short fiction of Rudyard Kipling: ‘Kipling was perhaps the first English writer to embrace the characteristics of the short story form whole-heartedly, and that thus his stories are perfect representations of the transition point between the old-fashioned tale of the nineteenth century and the modern short story…’