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…’
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…’
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’…’
CHARLES E. MAY looks for the birth of the modern short story in ‘A Lodging for the Night’ by Robert Louis Stevenson: ‘…its source is in language, the narrative impulse, and what it depicts is not reality but the perception of reality made by one in the process of making a story…’
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.
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…
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…’
JANIS LANE examines tragedy in Rose Tremain’s short stories from The American Lover collection: ‘These tragedies are threaded throughout, ranging from high drama and death, to minor inconveniences, such as the departure of a spouse or lost love. The uniting factor is the characters’ vulnerability, and, often, a lack of control over their own destinies…’
CHARLOTTE OSBORN finds raw honesty in ‘Cold Pastoral’ by Marina Keegan: ‘…a story about the distorted perception of love, the impact of loss left on the living, and the curse of impenetrable jealousy…’
FARAH AHAMED examines the feminist roots of Shashi Deshpande’s short stories: ‘What we want to reach at finally is the telling, the breaking of silence.’
