Editor Interviews: Sean Preston, Open Pen
In the first of our new series featuring the editors of literary magazines, David Frankel speaks with Sean Preston, editor of Open Pen Magazine.
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Venus and Mars on a Winter Break
JO COLE finds that women are still from Venus and men are still from Mars in Hilary Mantel’s short story ‘Winter Break’: ‘Science demonstrates that the differences between men and women are real. Women have 11% more neurons in the brain’s hearing areas than men so consequently can hear better.’
In Him a Bestial Cruelty
DR CHRIS MACHELL discusses the themes of James Bond stories and their adaptations: ‘…as the films were not produced in the sequence of the books’ publication, continuity between stories was usually either abandoned altogether or significantly rejigged. This method of adaptation resulted in the films often bearing little resemblance to their source texts…’
The Wood That Starts the Fire
A.J. ASHWORTH identifies with the transformative power of chopping wood in Raymond Carver’s ‘Kindling’: ‘It’s not always obvious why some stories stay with us, why they seep into the small tributaries in our brains, colouring our minds like ink in water. Sometimes the reason a story resonates may be more obvious though.’
But What Have I Said?
ALISON GIBBS examines how characters are shaped by politics in Nadine Gordimer’s short story, ‘The Catch’: ‘While Nadine Gordimer was known for both her fiction and her outspoken opposition to apartheid in her native South Africa, she always insisted that politics was not the driving motivation for her stories.’
Moons Blackened with Coal Dust
ALISON ARMSTRONG explores the dark and sometimes violent world of Breece D’J Pancake’s short stories: ‘The hard-hitting stories are set in rural West Virginia, where the characters labour to survive in a blighted landscape of failing farms, industrialised remnants of mines, and nature struggling to reassert itself.’
Enough to Drive Anyone Mad
ROSEMARY GEMMELL looks at Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: ‘When a work of fiction receives the comment that “such a story ought not to be written”, it surely begs the reader to find out why, especially when the critic claims “it was enough to drive anyone mad”.’
Hemingway’s Secret
Shortlisted in the 2018 Feature Writing Competition PETER JORDAN examines the influence of dyslexia and the paintings of Cezanne on the short stories of Ernest Hemingway: ‘The defining qualities of Hemingway’s minimalist writing — short sentences, short paragraphs, the short concrete word over its longer equivalent, mistrust of subordinate clauses, omission, and suggestion — here perfectly characterise dyslexic writing…’
A Spy of The Mind
Shortlisted in the 2018 Feature Writing Competition NICOLE MANSOUR looks at the short fiction of Sam Shepard: ‘His words evoke anticipation, the unknown that lies ahead of all of us. To me they also suggest something of the power of the present moment, about not tying oneself too tightly to any one of those loose ends but rather letting oneself simply unravel in whatever way fate intends…’
The Cold Eye of Mary Mccarthy
Shortlisted in the 2018 Feature Writing Competition SAM REESE looks at the short fiction of Mary McCarthy: ‘Well aware of the relationship between narrative and identity, McCarthy uses the vital compression of the short story form as a way to offer an alternative view of the roles available to contemporary women…’