VICTORIA LESLIE discusses the feminist message behind the stories of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: ‘When we think of the nineteenth century cult of the drowned woman, and of the abundance of these tragic figures in art and literature… Gilman’s story offers a new kind of heroine for the new century…’
RICHARD NEWTON, shortlisted in the 2017 Feature Writing Competition, recommends Cormac McCarthy as a short story writer, whether he likes it or not: ‘Ride him down, bring him in. Against his will, if that’s what it takes. Drag him to the pantheon kicking and writhing. Disregard his testimony: ‘I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.’ Commit Cormac McCarthy to the front rank of short story writers; to hell with his protestations…’
COMPETITION SHORTLIST: The THRESHOLDS International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition is now in its sixth year – celebrating all that the short story form has to offer and awarding one deserving essayist the top prize of £500…
COMPETITION LONGLIST: We would like to congratulate the following writers whose work has been selected for the 2017 THRESHOLDS International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition longlist…
Dr CHRIS MACHELL delves into the world of story adaptations in film as he explores The Thing and Peter Watts’ short story ‘The Things’: ‘Threading itself through film and literature as well as the bodies of its victims, The Thing renders culture itself as an abject body, absorbing, adapting and transforming.’
TRACY FELLS finds the weird, the wonderful, the down-right uncanny, and the harshness of reality in Melanie Whipman’s collection Llama Sutra: ‘To me, this collection should be read only for pleasure, but also for instruction. If you’re a fiction writer hoping to hook the interest of a competition judge then you should study this collection with an analytical eye, learn what makes a winning short story…’
PODCAST: In the third instalment of this series of Short Story Masterclass podcasts, Zoe Gilbert interviews award-winning author Alison MacLeod. In the podcast they discuss fiction and the here and now, ‘what if’ scenarios and holding a short story together…
DAVID FRANKEL has a look at the stories included in the 2016 BBC National Short Story Award Anthology: ‘each presents us with a character with a crystal clear voice that carries us briefly but completely into their world…’
SHAFIQAH SAMARASAM looks at the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories of Jhumpa Lahiri: ‘Her magnificent stories will echo in the lives of many foreign people because of the strength of her portrayal of their lives…’
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…
