Robert Shearman – Live Q and A
The full transcript of Rob Shearman’s lively and inspirational Question and Answer session is now available in our archives. Click the Q and A tab at the top of the page to see what he had to say…
Tales from the Tutor
As a tutor of Creative Writing for the Open University, I can’t shake off a slightly nagging guilt about being paid for immersing myself in a subject I’m passionate about.
We Recommend – Michèle Roberts
Michèle Roberts’ stories are generous and quirky, adventurous and erotic. She writes about things I want to read, moving between France and England, between past and present. The stories are full of sensuality, religious feeling and women’s desires.
I Dedicate November to Short, Ugly First Drafts
Put the bones of the beast together and worry about muscle and skin and soul later. This isn’t about polish or finesse, it’s about the dirty work – short, ugly first drafts.
Bridport Prize Winners Announced
Congratulations go out to the winners of this year’s Bridport Short Story Prize, Alison Fisher, Wayne Price and Kirsty Logan. The Bridport Competition, which bills itself as ‘the richest open prize,’ with a total prize fund of £14,000, attracted almost 15,000 entries this year in three categories: short stories, flash fiction and poetry.
Making a Scene, by Phil Latham
Some, all or none of the below may or may not be fact or fiction. Or both. Phil Latham takes no responsibility for anyone believing what he says to be true or helpful or entertaining. Ever.
Stories Taking Flight, by Jane Feaver
Reading with a view to editing is different too from reading for pleasure. There is a responsibility attached to it: the responsibility to attempt to be less partial than you might otherwise be. You are not, for instance, furnishing your own home.
Author Profile – Raymond Carver
One thing you soon surmise from reading Raymond Carver is that he was an alcoholic. Carver’s characters tend to drink excessively, and his stories often examine the negative impact of drinking on his central character’s relationships. But for the last eleven years of his life, Carver was sober, and it was in these sober years that he wrote what many believe to be his finest stories.
We Recommend – The Boat by Nam Le
Katherine Orr admits… I have always felt frustrated by the stock advice to the young writer: write what you know.
Word Packages, by Mike Smith
The significant package in prose fiction, and especially in the short story I suspect, is the paragraph. Stephen King suggests this in his On Writing. Groups of paragraph packages are often separated by a line space.