‘I start a story because some concrete image or situation prompts or pesters or forces me to. And I don’t know where I am going when I start…’ Author DAVID CONSTANTINE talks to THRESHOLDS about the art of writing stories.
In her essay, JEMMA DRAYCOTT shows us how her love of Hanan Al-Shaykh’s short stories developed, as she guides us through ‘The Scratching of Angels’ Pens’.
EXCLUSIVE NEW STORY: We are thrilled to bring you ‘Berroca’, a provocative and satirical short story from author and journalist JULIE BURCHILL. This is REBECCA, but not as you know it… ‘Last night I dreamt I was hanging at Madderley again, like back in the day…’
MIKE SMITH looks at the writings and Englishness of V.S. Pritchett: ‘In so many of Pritchett’s stories, there is an uncomfortable consciousness that hangs in the atmosphere like the smell of an extinguished candle…’
In her essay, GINA CHALLEN recommends Panos Karenzis’ collection of short stories Little Infamies: ‘a collection of nineteen gently interlinking tales all set in a fictional village in rural Greece…’
‘The writing is raw and at times the language is coarse and graphic, but it is ultimately so real that it cannot be written in any other way.’ RUBA ABUGHAIDA recommends Junot Diaz’s collection This Is How You Lose Her.
In his essay, DAN POWELL recommends Anton Chekhov’s short story collection The Exclamation Mark, and discusses how the playful stories take us on a journey of a writer finding his voice.
CARINE OSMONT recommends ‘To Brixton Beach’ by Stella Duffy: ‘It does away with plot and action and tells of a day at the Lido, Brixton’s open-air swimming pool…’
‘For many, myself included, it is the short stories, out of all his works, that remain the most memorable.’ JASON CLIFTON recommends Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’.
In ‘Read All About It’, ANNABELLE CARVELL walks us through the steps of a news story writing exercise that’s sure to get your fingers itching.
