PETER JORDAN profiles the life and writing of Anton Chekhov: ‘…no writer gets closer to articulating the human condition. It took me a long time to understand what he was doing, I still don’t fully understand, I simply know that when reading his work I feel some emotional shift…’
JACK TILLEY discusses his experience of reading Carver: Collected Stories from The Library of America: ‘It went something like this: ‘Fat’, ‘Neighbors’, ‘The Idea’, ‘They’re Not Your Husband’. Then I couldn’t take any more. After four days I couldn’t read another story…’
‘When it comes to reading short stories, I’d prefer not to. As a premise for a piece submitted to a site promoting the short story, this is not a hugely promising start. But bear with me…’ CHARLES DAVIS discusses the short story form.
MORGAN OMOTOYE takes us on Eddie Fenn’s journey to discover a mysterious sound in the night, in James Salter’s short story ‘Akhnilo’.
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.
Murakami’s parents were strict, but allowed him freedom to go hiking and explore his environment. He was permitted to buy books on credit at the local bookstore, so long as they never included magazines or comics. He began to write for his school paper and fell in love with American detective novels…
