Editor of Unsung Shorts, GARY BUDDEN, takes us into the weird depths of speculative fiction: ‘There is one sub-genre particularly well-suited to the short form, that goes under a number of names: the weird tale, the strange story, the New Weird, interstitial fiction, and many more…’
CHRISSY DERBYSHIRE explores the themes of womanhood and fairytales in the haunting short stories of Angela Carter: ‘The Bloody Chamber is a deceptively slim volume, for this strange beast of a book is easily as baroque as any of Carter’s writings…’
In this study of short fiction, MORGAINE DAVIDSON takes a look at the short stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: ‘Sherlock Holmes was one of the first literary detectives in the world. These stories are the bedrock of crime fiction, and the form from which all others have grown…’
MOA LINDUNGER explores the themes of home and cultural identity in the short stories of Adnan Mahmutovic: ‘What we find in this collection, is a myriad of stories of home in which its smells, textures and people are mythologised and romanticised, at times in absurdum – generally known as nostalgia…’
‘On Wednesday 20th March 2013, I lost a friend. I’d never met him but he’d made me laugh, cry, be fearful and shocked. He had been with me as I hid under the covers in my childhood, and opened a door into the world of horror stories.’ KATE MURRAY remembers the short stories of James Herbert.
We are thrilled to publish a new story by the prize-winning American author, Valerie Trueblood. ‘The Llamas’ will appear in her new collection, Search Party, due out next year.
In The Sound of Music, Maria sings: ‘Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.’ That might be the case if you’re an ex nun in the Swiss Alps but it doesn’t work so well in short story writing.
PAULINE MASUREL asks: ‘Should we write what we know or write what we don’t?’
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.
An extended version of Adam’s interview has now been filed under the tab Q&A tab at the top of the page.
