Fantasies of Julio Cortázar
‘You could say Julio Cortázar was destined to write from the moment he was christened with the name Julio, after the French writer Jules Verne.’ HUGH FULHAM-McQUILLAN takes us through the life and works of Julio Cortázar.
Where do you want to go today?
‘The idea’s quite simple: short stories set in cities across the world, which you can listen to, or read in eBook form…’ JIM HINKS, Digital Editor at Comma Press, tells us how the Gimbal short story app arrived on our phones.
Taking Pictures
ALEX RUCZAJ climbs inside Anne Enright’s short story collection Taking Pictures: ‘Whenever I panicked that my stories weren’t about very much at all, it gave me permission to write boldly about ordinary things…’
Baby Shoes
‘For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn.’ CHLOE DALTON takes a closer look at one of the shortest stories ever written…
How to Read Lorrie Moore
TRACY MAYLATH guides us through the second-person narratives of Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help: ‘Everyone speaks in ‘yous’: ‘you feel’ when they mean ‘I felt’, ‘you know’ when they mean ‘I want you to understand me’. Perhaps that’s why we find it irritating in literature…’
Miriam by Truman Capote
‘A deeply unsettling tale, a psychological horror which is all the more disturbing because it is so finely wrought…’ JULIET WEST explores Truman Capote’s haunting short story ‘Miriam’.
No One Belongs Here More Than You
‘Her stories are visually rich, her dialogue skilfully edited, her ability to conjure up the reality of a scene is almost incantatory…’ In her essay, shortlisted for our 2013 Feature Writing Competition, ANNA ARBITER recommends No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July.
The Fall of the British Empire
In his essay, shortlisted for the 2013 THRESHOLDS International Feature Writing Competition, STEPHEN DEVEREUX recommends Saki’s ‘The Lumber Room’. ‘The severe, unimaginative, repressive regime imposed upon him was frequently the target of his stories – small children outwitting and humiliating stupid adults time and time again.’
We Recommend Adam Marek
In her essay, shortlisted for the 2013 THRESHOLDS Feature Writing Competition, CARYS BRAY recommends the words of Adam Marek: ‘sometimes only outright surrealism can do justice to the merciless strangeness of reality.’
Touch
‘I was slow coming to this book, but then good books, like lovers, have a way of finding you…’ In his essay, shortlisted for the 2013 THRESHOLDS International Feature Writing Competition, TOM VOWLER explores Graham Mort’s short story collection Touch.