Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award Shortlist 2012

Huge congratulations to Short Review authors Kevin Barry and Tom Lee, whose stories have both been shortlisted for the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award - the full shortlist is:

Kevin Barry - 'Beer Trip to Llandudno'
Emma Donoghue - 'The Hunt'
Jean Kwok - 'Where the Gods Fly'
Tom Lee - 'The Current'
Robert Minhinnick - 'El Aziz: Some Pages From His Notebooks'
Linda Oatman High - 'Nickel Mines Hardware'

Winner will be announced on March 30th - good luck to all! An anthology of the six top stories will be published by Waterstones, and there will be several related events in London. 

Starting Small: A Guest Blog Post By Tara Fox Hall

This week we welcome Tara Fox Hall, whose first story collection, Just Shadows, was published in January. She tells The Short Review how she got interested in short stories:

"Writing careers begin in various ways. For me, it was a short article in a small print magazine that a friend, Harald Moore, put out to promote his catnip farm in Johnsonville, New York. The name of the magazine was Catnip Blossoms! My first article —detailing my curiosity and concern for a turkey I would always see by itself, sans flockmates— was called Lonely. Another article entitled "Good Work"—a rundown about how working on a dairy farm was hard yet meaningful work compared to cubicle existence—quickly followed. Both I submitted it on a lark, and to my surprise, Harald asked to publish them.

In the next year, I published more non-fiction articles, detailing my adventures saving wildlife, my experiences living on an acreage, and humorous recountings of the antics of my wacky pets. I kept publishing stories for the next five years, even as the name of the magazine changed to Meanwhile, and then to On The River, when the catnip farm went out of business, and Harald moved with his family to Troy, NY. Yet even happy with my success as a writer, I longed for an outlet for my fiction ideas, primarily my scary stories. I had longer works of paranormal suspense, and vampire romance, but no publisher or agent I submitted to was interested. The only successes I had to my credit were my short nature articles. I had to build up my publishing credits, but how?

In spring of 2011, it suddenly dawned on me that I had the tools; I just needed a new platform. Resolute, I went looking online to see what horror markets were there looking for shorter stories. It was then I first heard the term “flash fiction.”
When faced with the sheer number of online horror magazines, I was excited, but hesitant, too. Here were calls for stories on multiple sites, in just the genres I wanted to write. But could I write scary fiction the way I had my nature non-fiction? More important, would readers be moved without real life experience to color the stories with emotion? There was only one way to find out.

My small stories of nature paved the way

Using material from nightmares and my imagination, I began churning out stories. To my delight, flash fiction was about 500 words, which was almost exactly the length my nature articles had been. I already knew how to begin and end a story within a page, and draw the reader in. I could do this. My only worry was could I do this well enough to get published?

I submitted a few stories, then scored when Deadman’s Tome published The Hunt in May 2011. Encouraged, I devoted all my spare time to writing short horror stories, submitting them as fast as I could write them, seeking out new markets for each. At first, I had limited success. Rejections clogged my inbox, editors telling me my stories just weren’t what they were looking for. Irritated but determined, I kept as it, reworking each rejected story, and doggedly sending it back out within a few days. A few months passed this way. Desperate, I searched out more markets and wrote more new stories, making them harder hitting, more twisting, and darker than pitch.

In the fall of 2011, I began to hit it big, with story after story being accepted. I had found my horror “voice,” and had both readers and editors wanting more. That cumulated with my publication of Just Shadows in January 2012, an anthology of both previously published horror stories and new work.

I have my first novels coming out this year, with likely more to follow. My small stories of nature paved the way, leading me in a roundabout way to my dream of being a published author, and a novelist. But the short story, particularly flash fiction, will always remain a close friend, one I’ll keep returning to for years to come.

And I haven’t forgotten my affinity for saving wildlife, either. On the River is still being published. I’m still contributing to issues. For the latest one, go to On The River magazine."


Thank you so much, Tara, we hope you'll keep returning to short stories too! Find out more about Just Shadows on Tara's Facebook page and Goodreads blog.

Help Save Short Stories on BBC Radio!

Following swiftly in the footsteps of the first short story festival in Bristol, UK, ShortStoryVille, which was hugely successful - comes the distressing news that BBC Radio 4, which until recently broadcast a short story in the Afternoon Reading programme 5 days a week, which was then reduced to 3 days a week - and now will be only once a week. This is the BBC - who only a few years ago was proud to announce the BBC National Short Story Award, and on their website say:

The BBC National Short Story Award, managed in partnership with Booktrust, continues to serve as a reminder of the power of the short story and to celebrate a literary form that is proving ever more versatile in the twenty first century, enjoyed not just on the page, on air and increasingly on every sort of screen, but also in flash fiction events, short story festivals and slams. The short story has moved beyond the revival of recent years and is now experiencing a golden age.

BBC Radio 4 is the world's leading broadcaster of short stories and a staunch and long-time supporter of the form. Short stories are broadcast every week, attracting over a million listeners.

BBC- you are a "staunch and long-time supporter", don't let us down now!

The Afternoon Reading has for many many years been a showcase not just for well-known writers but for new voices - on a personal note, it was my first "big break", the first time I felt I was taken seriously as a writer, coupled with the joy of hearing my story brought so wonderfully to life. Not only that, the payment the writer receives is no paltry sum and has formed a significant part of my writerly earnings in the years since.

There are many, many writers, listeners and readers who are very concerned about this development. Writer Susie McGuire and Ian, organiser of the UK's National Short Story Week, have formulated the following:

The new Controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, will be a guest on FEEDBACK on BBC Radio 4 next week. How very timely.
Would you add your name to a letter/question to ask her?
Would you pass on this email to other writers who care about the health of the short story…?

The more of us, & the better known the writers who sign it, the more likely it is to have some effect.

If so, please find below a short, polite question, proposed by Ian of http://www.nationalshortstoryweek.org.uk

Reminder: info on her decision to cut the short story’s presence on Radio 4 outlined here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/07_july/10/radio4.shtml

If you’d like to add your signature, please email YES to
ian AT shortstoryweek DOT org DOT uk

& cc to me: info AT susiemaguire DOT co DOT uk

NB – It would be really helpful if you could reply within 24 hours so that the question can be lodged as soon as possible. This is by no means the *only* action interested parties can take, but it’s a start, and I hope you might add your weight to it with this (and further suggestions are welcomed)
thanks
Susie

*******************
Proposed question:
We were surprised and disappointed to learn of the decision to reduce the short story output on Radio 4 to once a week from next spring. Radio 4 has been a great champion of the short story for many years. It is one of very few places in the UK where both new and established writers can have their short stories broadcast to a large audience, and where radio listeners can enjoy readings of the short story form. This move comes at a time when interest in the short story is growing, but paid opportunities for short story writers are still scarce. Could Gwyneth Williams please explain:
1) what has led her to make this decision?
2) whether the short stories on Radio 4 extra will be new commissions or repeats of existing recordings?
3) how this decision fits with the BBC’s sponsorship of the National Short Story Award (and indeed if this will continue?)

If you are moved to do so, please take action, following the instructions outlined above. Signatories so far include:

Clare Wigfall

Sara Maitland

Philip Pullman

Nicholas Royle

Vivian French

James Robertson

Michael Holroyd

Jane Rusbridge

Dr Charles Smith

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hilary

Vanessa Gebbie

Jill Dawson

Lucinda Byatt

Maggie Gee

Sarah Sheridan (Soc of A, Scotland)

Tania Hershman (Ed, The Short Review)

Helena Nelson (publisher, Happenstance)

Morag Joss

Lola Perrin

Jules Horne

Suzanne Bellenger

Richard Beard (Nat Academy of Writing)

Ali Bacon

Nicky Parker, (Publisher, Amnesty)

Dan Powell 

Ian Cundell

Kathleen Langley

John Courtney-Grimwood

Wendy Ann Greenhalgh

Alison Wells

James Wall

K E Bergdoll

Linda Cracknell

Jonathan Pinnock (also see his FB links)

Sarah Salway

Alison MacLeod

Louis Winters

Emily Dubberly

Karen Whiteson

Griff Griffiths

Sara Schofield

Ian Macpherson

Stella Burchill

(and counting...)

Please join us!

ADDENDUM: There is now an online petition here - please sign! 

Congrats - Edge Hill Short Story Prize

Congratulations to Short Review author Tom Vowler whose short story collection, The Method, won the Readers' Prize at the Edge Hill Short Story Prize awards last night! You can read our review of the book here. Congratulations also to Graham Mort, whose collection, Touch, won the overall Edge Hill Prize. A great night for short stories!

Scott Prize shortlist announced

The shortlist for Salt Publishing's 2011 Scott Prize for unpublished debut short story collections has been announced. Says Salt: "This prize forms part of Salt’s commitment to the short story and to our mission to discover and nurture new talent from around the English-speaking world." The shortlist is:


Adam Prince (Knoxville, US): The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men
Andrea Ashworth (Lancashire, UK): Somewhere Else, or Even Here
Cassandra Parkin (E. Yorks, UK): New World Fairy Tales
Guy Ware (London, UK): Witness Protection
John Haggerty (CA, US): The Other Half of Graceland
Jonathan Pinnock (St Albans, UK): Dot (.), Dash (-)
Julie Mayhew (Herts, UK): A Little Death
Michael Downs (Baltimore, US): The Greatest Show
Nicole Reid (IN, US): If You Must Know
Virginia Gilbert (Dublin, Ireland): Abroad

Many congratulations to all the shortlisted authors! Winners will be announced in April and The Short Review looks forward to reviewing the winning collections when they are published.

UK National Short Story Week - what's it about?

The UK is to have a National Short Story Week for the first time this year, and  TSR asked its founder and director, Ian Skillicorn, what it's all about and what his wildest dreams for NSSW look like!




The Short Review: Tell us a bit about yourself and your team.

Ian Skillicorn: I have been involved in writing and producing for most of my working life, having started my career in Italy in the early 90s. In 2006 I set up Short Story Radio to promote the short story form and short story writers. We broadcast audio short stories via the website and our podcast and we have tens of thousands of listeners from around the world. I also produce marketing podcasts for authors and give talks on writing for audio.

When I had the idea for National Short Story Week I approached a number of people to form a steering group for the week. The role of the steering group is to provide advice and support, and to help promote National Short Story Week. The members of the steering group are all people I have worked with. They are professionals whose talents and opinions I respect, and I know that each of them is passionate about the short story form. Lisa Armytage is an actor with over 30 years experience in film, TV, radio and theatre. She has narrated short stories for radio, and also writes short stories. Jane Bidder writes novels and short stories under the pen name Sophie King and also teaches creative writing. Robert Kirkwood is the producer/presenter of the Talking Books programme on Insight Radio (RNIB). Sue Moorcroft is a writer of novels and short stories as well as non-fiction. Pat Richardson was Fiction Editor at Best magazine for over 16 years and now runs her own writing and editing consultancy. Bogdan Tiganov is a talented young writer who is in the process of setting up an independent publishing venture.

TSR: Where did the idea for NSSW come from? Is it inspired by something else happening around the world?

IS: During the time that I have been producing audio short stories I have met and worked with hundreds of writers from around the UK and overseas. The short story form is very popular among writers, especially within writers' groups, but time and again I have heard from writers about how few opportunities there are to find a commercial outlet for short fiction. However, I believe there is a market for short stories - my own experience of Short Story Radio has taught me that. A national awareness week seemed like the ideal way to connect short story writers with potential readers and listeners. I'm not aware of a similar short story event anywhere else, but of course there are already high profile and successful literary events in the UK such as World Book Day, National Poetry Day and National Storytelling Week. I think a week is the ideal length for an awareness campaign of this nature, as it gives organisers the chance to reach participants over a number of days, and participants the opportunity to attend more than one event.

TSR: What is the essence of NSSW? What will be happening?

IS: From the outset the intention was for National Short Story Week to be a grass roots initiative. My role, and that of the steering group, is to promote the existence of National Short Story Week to the public and interested parties. People and groups around the country are then free to organise an event that best suits them. I've recently heard from a number of people who have already organised events. These events include a short story display in a city library; a talk to a writing group by an award winning short story writer; a reading group which, in November, will choose and discuss a short story anthology instead of a novel; an open mic short story event and two short story collections especially commissioned to celebrate National Short Story Week.

On the website we have lots of ideas for how National Short Story Week can be celebrated - depending on whether you are a writer, reader/listener, publisher, library or bookshop. See the ideas here.

TSR: What would the best NSSW look like in your wildest dreams?

IS: My hope is that National Short Story Week will meet its aims, which are to get more people writing, reading and listening to short stories, and to create creative and commercial opportunities for people and organisations involved in the short story form. I don't want to think in terms of wildest dreams as that sounds to me like something that is unlikely to happen, and I believe that the aims of the week are achievable. This will be the UK's first National Short Story Week, so all those aims may not be reached in 2010, but we will have started the ball rolling!

I hope that people all over the UK, of all ages and backgrounds, will get involved in the week - readers and listeners will discover writers and writing that they otherwise wouldn't have known about; writers will find new outlets and enthusiasm for their work (which in turn will be fulfilling, motivating and perhaps even make them some money!) and more people will consider reading or listening to short stories on a regular basis.

Reaction to the idea of a National Short Story Week has certainly been extremely positive and I really think this could become an enjoyable and beneficial event in the literary calendar. It's great to see that people have already started to organise events, even though the week is not for another three months. But now is the time to get organising and promoting events - and the National Short Story Week online calendar can help with that.

TSR: What's the best way for short story lovers to get their non-short-story-loving friends intitated into the joys of short fiction?

There are lots of ways to introduce your friends to the joys of the short story. If you are considering buying a novel as a gift why not choose a short story anthology or collection instead? You can find information about the latest short story publications on the National Short Story Week website (and of course on The Short Review!). We also have a recommended reading list and some best-selling writers have contributed to the website by telling us what their favourite short story is.

Suggest to friends that they listen to a short story on Radio 4 (you can also listen via the iPlayer), or on the websites of Australia's ABC or America's NPR. Get them to download an audio short story to listen to on the way to work or during a long journey (search iTunes for free podcasts). Listening to a short story on the train could be a pleasant change from listening to music. If there is an open mic short story night near you, drag a friend along. They are often held in a pub so your friend may not need too much convincing...

TSR: What are 3 of your favourite short story collections or individual stories?

IS: My all time favourite writers of short stories are Katherine Mansfield, Truman Capote and Jean Rhys. All three were able to communicate so much in so few words, and their stories and characters stay with you long after you have finished reading - the essence of the perfect short story!

Over the past few years I have worked with a large number of talented short story writers, members of the Verulam Writers Circle spring to mind. I must also mention the work of members of our steering group - I've recorded short stories by Sue Moorcroft which have been enjoyed by listeners to radio stations all over the country, and I often buy books by Sophie King as presents for family - I have recorded some of her work too. I think Bodgan Tiganov's work deserves a larger readership and I am sure he will find it. I currently have The Ice and Other Stories by Kenneth Steven on my bedside table.

UK National Short Story Week

It's about time! Well done to Lisa Armytage, Sophie King, Robert Kirkwood, Sue Moorcroft, Pat Richardson, and Bogdan Tiganov for not waiting til the UK government declared it but just going ahead and doing it anyway! The US may have National Short Story Month, but now at least the UK has National Short Story Week: Nov 22nd-28 2010.

What's the plan? The organisers say:

The aims of National Short Story Week are:
1) to get more people reading and listening to short stories;
2) to get more people writing short stories;
3) to develop creative and commercial opportunities for individuals and organisations involved in the short story genre.
National Short Story Week is intended to be a grass roots, "bottom up" event. The role of the publicity campaign managed by Short Story Week C.I.C. is to enable individuals and organisations to organise their own events on a national, regional or local level. 

Good for them! As I always say, it's International Short Story Day every day here at the Short Review, but I know that some people need a little bit of a nudge/shove in that direction. We'll do everything we can to support NSSW of course. Roll on, November!

Short Story Month

May was declared National Short Story Month in the US by Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network a few years ago, and, wonderfully, others have followed his lead. Doesn't matter whether you are US-based, here's a great excuse to celebrate the short story even more than we do already! A few links to get you started:

Emerging Writers Network - reviews and discussions of short stories

Fiction Writers Review - a giveaway in honour of SSM!

Canada's National Post's Short Story Month  - Q&As with writers

BookFox's Short Story Month posts - excellent short story discussions

NextRead - reviews of short story collections for Short Story Month


SeattlePI - article about SSM

Reading the Short Story - blog discussing short stories

Let me know if you've got another link for me to add...

And if that's not enough - just check out all the short story collections and author interviews we've amassed in 2 1/2 years over at The Short Review, of course!


.

From digital to... vinyl??

What an interesting month for short stories! First. Ether Books announces their new iPhone app to great fanfare - " Publisher Ether Books gives short stories new lease of life on an iPhone" declares the Guardian, " Publishing venture bets on iPhone short stories" says Reuter. This is a great new initiative, let's hope it brings short stories a wide audience.

And then... Nathan Dunne steps back in time to unveil Underwood Stories - on vinyl! The Short Review thought we'd better ask him a bit more about it:

TSR: Who are you and where did the idea for Underwood come from?

ND: My name is Nathan Dunne.I live in London. I studied art history at Cambridge University and completed a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London. My non-fiction book Tarkovsky (Black Dog Publishing), about the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, came out in 2008. About a year ago I was stranded in Bangkok airport on a flight-delay and I saw a man carrying a portable gramophone. He had a bag full of old records and would dust each one off meticulously before playing it. On seeing this I was reminded of what we've lost in the digital age - a love for the object. Rather than something that you hold in your hands, packaging has been reduced to just another image. There's nothing physical left.

I've always loved short stories and avidly listen to writers reading their work on podcasts. But somehow podcasts always leave me cold. So I had the idea of writers reading short stories onto records as a way of preserving them, as a way of creating a different way to experience stories and remember them. Records are all about the experience: you've got to lay them down on the turntable, drop the needle and then change the side when it’s done. This attention to detail is what I'd love to see happen to the short story. Sitting around in a group and listening to the perfect crisp-crackle of a record simply doesn't compare to a CD or mp3.

TSR: Why short stories? What, to you, makes a great short story?

ND: Short stories create an entirely different world to a novel or novella. They offer up unique opportunities for narrative and constrain character development within a limited setting or wordcount. This is extremely exciting because it is so hard to get right. However, when the writer does succeed in creating a powerful story the experience brings a tide of pleasure so rarely felt. Short stories are also perfect for the medium of vinyl. When read aloud they are short enough to fit on a single side of a record and having a physical object creates a sense of occasion when listening rather than an audiobook simply popping up amid the shuffle on your iPod. The point of a record is that it is a combination of unique sound and beautiful packaging. It makes you slow down, sit back and pay attention to the words. Writers deserve that and the short story as a form deserves that. For me a great short story is one that reveals how surreal and absurd everyday life can be. 

TSR: In this age of iPods and digital everything vinyl records are beautiful but are you really expecting people to be able to play them? Is it easy to get them made these days?

ND: While the world is digital there are more records being produced now than ever before. Major record companies have begun to re-release classic albums on vinyl and new bands are increasingly producing vinyl records in addition to CDs. If you don't believe me go into any HMV and look at the large vinyl section on offer. This is only a recent development which has grown up in the last couple of years. The reason for this, as I understand it, is that with the ease of downloading people are hungry to broaden the way music relates to their lives. In the past bands were always associated with their album artwork and much of that identity has been weakened with digital. Although you may be able to download an image of an album cover the experience of leafing through liner notes and squinting at blurry photographs just isn't the same without the physical object. It is very easy to get records made today. In the UK more than half a dozen production plants produce records while in Europe there are many more.

TSR: You are planning 2 records a year, will you be open to submissions?

ND: Yes we are open to submissions. We are looking to pair writers up together with one on each side of the record. This way both stories will make sense together and we can commission artwork that reflects this.

TSR: What are the last three short story collections you read?

ND: Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan

Tales of Belkin by Pushkin

On the Edge of the Cliff by V.S. Pritchett

Thanks, Nathan. Underwood Books is launching its first issue on May 19th in London, featuring stories by Toby Litt and Short Review author Clare Wigfall. Much luck to the vinyl-peddlers and the iPhone app!

Sunday Times Short Story Prize Longlist

The first annual Sunday Times short story competition, at £25,000 for a single story now the most lucrative prize in the world for writers published in the UK, has announced its longlist, with several Short Review authors featured. Good luck to all!

Here's the full list:

• Richard Beard - James Joyce, EFL Teacher
• Nicholas Best - Souvenir
• Sylvia Brownrigg - Jocasta
• John Burnside - Slut's Hair
• Will Cohu - Nothing But Grass
• Joe Dunthorne - Critical Responses To My Last Relationship
• Petina Gappah - An Elegy for Easterly
• Jackie Kay - Reality, Reality
• A.L. Kennedy - Saturday Teatime
• Adam Marek - Fewer Things
• Charles Mosley - Constraint
• Chris Paling - The Red Car
• Ron Rash - Burning Bright
• Simon Robson - Will There Be Lions?
• Kay Sexton - Anubis and the Volcano
• Helen Simpson - Diary of an Interesting Year
• C.K. Stead - Last Season's Man
• Rose Tremain - The Jester of Astapovo
• Gerard Woodward - Legoland
• David Vann - It's Not Yours

Short Lit Bits Jan/Feb

Entertaining tidbits from the world of short fiction..

• In Memoriam #1: JD Salinger dies aged 91. "His stories presented readers with an utterly  natural, strange and often disturbing landscape. Few writers since have come close to capturing the narrative completeness Salinger achieved. Nothing is out of place, in other words. " True/Slant. As a tribute, The New Yorker publishes 12 of his stories from back issues.

• Great short story quote #1: "Short stories seem so harmless. What are they even about? People who have a hard time talking to other people, usually. But great ones — the ones that don't just reflect life but actually conjure it in full force — can mess up your head and heart. "  Entertainment Weekly on Amy Bloom.

• Get 'em for free#1: Waterstones.com is offering customers a free Ian McEwan short story as an e-book ahead of the release of his latest novel. Loyalty cardholders can download part one of Psychopolis from the retailer's website. The story was originally published in McEwan's short story collection In Between the Sheets and is about a lovestruck Englishman living in Los Angeles.
  
  
• Great short story quote #2: "Short stories, she says, "are a great form. Not as people often think — little chips or a string of anecdotes — they have breadth and depth and are difficult to write. They're very demanding and very different from a novel, with its endless darkness, endless climb." Amy Bloom on short stories, Hartford Courant

• Congrats #1: Penn State University English and creative writing professor Eugene Cross has won the annual $5,000 Dzanc Prize from Dzanc Books. The award supports both his creative writing and his efforts to build a series of creative workshops for refugees from Nepal, Sudan and Bhutan living in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania.  Alongside his workshops, Cross hopes to complete his short story collection, "Fires of Our Choosing."  Dzanc Prize

• Short story rage: "Today I was asked if I would write a short short story. It would be part of a Fringe Festival – dread words – and would go up on some walls in an exhibition of similar short short stories, but without my name attached to it.  .. in the mad world of those with well-meaning but lunatic desires for egalitarianism in absolutely everything my fifty years writing 43 books, learning my trade and re-learning it, practising my craft, hoping to improve, reading the best to learn from them,  putting out words in a careful order every day of my life, working with the talent I was given by God - none of that matters a jot...." Susan Hill in the Spectator.

• Who knew? #1: "F.X. Toole, a cut man who became a literary sensation at the age of 70 with the short stories that inspired the Oscar-winning movie MILLION DOLLAR BABY, has been named the winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s 2010 A.J. Liebling Award...The acclaim for Toole’s gritty, evocative short story collection ROPE BURNS served as the final reward for a knockaround guy who spent so much of his life as an unpublished — and frustrated — writer. " Boxing Blog.

• Celeb endorsements #1: "Timothy Hutton - Literary Sex god... Hutton has recently tweeted his affinity for Deborah Eisenberg’s short-story collection, Twilight of the Superheroes." ChristianKaneFan Blog

• Musicians jump on short stories bandwagon #1: "Israeli death metallers SALEM have revealed the album artwork and final tracklisting on the group’s upcoming seventh full-length album entitled “Playing God And Other Short Stories.”" MetalUnderground.com 

• This is the way to do it: "Scotch and Short Stories It's kinda like a book club but with a little more Ron Burgundy."
  
  

• Musicians jump on short stories bandwagon #2: "Keyboardist Franz Nicolay Leaves The Hold Steady...This will presumably open up his schedule to more solo material, like his 2009 album Major General and his upcoming short story collection Complicated Gardening Techniques". Prefix mag 

• We heartily agree #1: "Let’s Declare the 2010s the Decade of the Short Story...According to The Guardian, 2009 was the year of the short story. I’m going to have to agree with them. After all, Oprah chose a short story collection for her book club for the very first time, Alice Munro won the Man Booker International, Elizabeth Strout’s short story collection was awarded the Pulitzer, and great short story collections were published. One Story’s subscriptions are higher than ever, which surprised us–after all, the economy is forcing all of us to tighten our wallets." Save the Short Story 

• We'd love to read this if we had a translator #1: "Multi-awarded writer and winner of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Short Story in Hiligaynon) Prof. Alice Tan-Gonzales launched her [collection] entitled “Sa Taguangkan sang Duta kag Iban Pa nga Sugilanon (In the Womb of the Earth and Other Stories)” at the UPV Art Gallery on December 4, 2009 at UPV Iloilo City Campus.The collection of short stories is, according to Prof. Gonzales, her answer to the demoralizing opinion expressed by some from the metropolitan center that writing in the regional languages is dying . It is her hope that this small collection would impel a rush of literary activity and publication among talented Hiligaynon writers in the region, some of whom, she said, are hiding in the shadows of “unpublishedness” and anonymity. The News Today 

• Short stories save the economy and up your street cred #1: "In these trying times of economic uncertainty, many of us are looking for ways to maximise efficiency and return on investment, while minimising risk and limiting the possibility of failure....Fear not, intrepid investors!  The library has the perfect solution – Short Stories.  That’s right, audience, you heard me.  For decades regarded as the poor cousin of ‘real books’, these polished little beauties offer all the excitement and intrigue of a novel, but with so many added advantages......They sound posh.  Literary, even.  “What are you reading?”  “Oh, this?  It’s just a little collection of short stories by one of my favourite authors.”  “Ooohh, posh!”" Christchurch City Libraries Blog

• What a Shame #1: "Cardiff-based author Jo Verity won the Richard and Judy Short Story award in 2003 with The Bells, a year before they launched their wider book club....As a result of the exposure, Welsh publisher Honno bought her first novel, but she says she was surprised by the lack of attention following her Richard and Judy success. “After winning, I thought that people would beat a path to my door, but there was absolutely nothing,” Verity recalls. “I think it was because no one wants to read short stories.”" WalesOnline 

• A Rare Find #1: "Occasionally from the nation's cultural attic come rare finds, like this wondrous new collection of Kurt Vonnegut short stories. This collection holds 14 previously unpublished short stories written after World War II when Vonnegut was back home after witnessing the firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war." Post Gazette 

• Congrats #2: "Kalamazoo author Bonnie Jo Campbell has garnered another honor for her short story collection “American Salvage.” On Saturday, she was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction" Kalamazoo Living 

• Great short story quote #3: "If you are feeling particularly ants-in-your-pants-y, and don’t have much time to read, grab a short story collection and put your 20 minute attention span to good use. That episode of Dancing with the Stars can wait." Tulsa Library Blog 

• Best short story-related blog post title #1: "Voice, yoga, sex and short stories". Hannah, just breathe... 

• Great short story quote #4: "Last night at dinner, my friend Scott explained to someone, "Becky writes short stories--short stories are to the point, but you don't always know what the point *is*." Such a good summation of the strengths and weaknesses of stories." Rose-coloured: Talking Stories blog.

• Happy 150th, Chekhov! #1: "ANTON CHEKHOV once told a friend that he expected to be forgotten within seven years of his death. He could not have been more wrong. Whenever the art of the short story is discussed his is the name most often mentioned." Irish Times

• Starting young #1 "Adora Svitak, 12, describes herself as an "educator, poet and humanitarian." After publishing her first book of short stories, "Flying Fingers", at age seven, she dedicated all profits from sales in China to a Tibetan orphanage and raised $30,000 to help children threatened by massive floods in Vietnam in 2007. Now, Svitak is attempting to raise $10,000 for Save the Children's relief efforts in Haiti through her Twitter account". Huffington Post.

• Musicians jump on short stories bandwagon #3 & Short Review Authors #1: "Singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado has optioned the film rights to Anthony De Sa's linked story collection, Barnacle Love [reviewd on TSR here]. The deal was arranged by Sean Daily at Hotchkiss and Associates, on behalf of The Bukowski Agency." Quill and Quire.  

• Congrats #3 & We'd love to read this if we had a translator #2: "Short story writers have won all of the 2010 Rancage Literary Awards, which recognise outstanding literature written in local languages. The Rancage Cultural Foundation has selected this year’s award winners, given annually to Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese and Lampung literary figures for their creative excellence and dedication to preserving local literary traditions." The Jakarta Post

•  Get 'em for free #2: "Todd Brendan Fahey, author of the novel Wisdom's Maw [Far Gone Books, 1996]--surrounding the CIA's LSD experiments, known as Project MK-ULTRA--has opted to disperse his collection of black satire, "Dogshit Park & other atrocities," freely over the Internet." pr.com 

• Happy 150th, Chekhov! #2: "his stories are full of people who espouse views very similar to the above – enlightened misfits, philanthropic gentry, civilised professionals (often doctors like himself) holding a candle for reason, justice and all the rest. But the stories themselves invariably subject this posture to challenges that cast doubt over its relevance, even its basic validity, so that to pin down an authorial point of view becomes impossible." The Guardian

• No Age Limit #1: "The Bookbite survey of 1,162 people over 60 suggested they were increasingly confident with the internet and they were using it to find information about an older medium - books. More than 55% said the internet was a crucial part of their lives, while 31% were keen to go online to publish short stories and join book clubs." BBC News
  

• Short stories on film #1: "a short story by British author Eleanor Farjeon, is being adapted into a Japanese/Korean animation feature film. The Union Cho animation studio plans to release The Moon - Tsuki ga Hoshii to Ōjo-sama ga Naita comical fairy-tale fantasy in Spring of 2011. Farjeon first published the original story in The Little Bookroom, the 1955 short story collection that earned the author the first Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Carnegie Medal." Anime News Network 

• Happy 150th Birthday, Chekhov! #3: "As worldwide celebrations marking the 150th birthday celebrations of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov continue, a CD of some of his most renowned works is being launched. Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Bk.2, narrated by Russian-born actor Max Bollinger, features the dramatic stories Anyuta; The Helpmate; Ivan Matveyitch; Polinka; and Talent. Featuring music from Pytor Tchaikovsky, the stories are based on the original translations by Constance Clara Garnett, a 19th century expert of Russian literature, and are produced by Interactive Media." Pressport 

• Who knew? #1: "Everyone pretty much assumed John Hughes didn’t quit writing when he quit Hollywood, and eventually some archive would burst open with nearly 20 years of stockpiled Hughesian goodies. But good luck finding anyone outside the late filmmaker’s inner circle who knew he’d been publishing in our midst all along — not as John Hughes, alas, but as the pseudonymous, prolific short-story craftsman JL Hudson. Like, really short. But also, as a few newly published samples prove, pretty damned excellent." Movieline

• Congrats #3 & Short Review Authors #2: "Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, which we reviewed here, is a finalist for the National Book Award.  

• What David Sedaris Read this Year #1: "ometimes, I do sit down and read with my eyes. This year, I came across several short-story collections I exceptionally love,....My four favorite collections, arranged alphabetically, were: “Irish Girl,” by Tim Johnston, “Too Much Happiness,” by Alice Munro, “Do Not Deny Me” by Jean Thompson, “Everything Ravaged Everything Burned,” by Wells Tower"." New Yorker Book Bench 

• Short Review Authors #3: Andrew Porter's short story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter, is now available in paperback.

Short stories that go that little bit further

This month's issue includes a review of Ox-Tales, the four-book fundraising set of short fiction loosely inspired by Air, Fire, Earth and Water published by Oxfam, Britain's biggest charity. This is just one example of a short story collection which spreads itself further than just the reader's enjoyment.

When I started compiling this blog post, I thought there might be a few - but then the list kept growing. At The Short Review, we encourage everyone to read short story collections, however you might get hold of them, but in this case, we feel justified in saying: Go buy these books!

100 Stories for Haiti: Greg McQueen's instant response to the tragedy in Haiti was to call for submissions for a very speedily-produced anthology of short short stories from authors across the globe, including many Short Review authors and reviewers [and me... TH] to raise money to help the survivors of the recent earthquake. The book will be published shortly, and all proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross.

The whole ethos of Madras Press, a new US-based small press, is to publish "individually bound short stories and novella-length booklets and distribute the proceeds to a growing list of charitable organizations chosen by our authors." Madras' first four beautiful-produced books have just been published: The Third Elevator by Aimee Bender, whose proceeds are donated to InsideOUT Writers; Bobcat by Rebecca Lee, whose chosen charity is Riverkeeper; Sweet Tomb by Trinnie Dalton, proceeds benefiting the Theodore Payne Foundation; and A Mere Pittance, by Madras Press founder Sumanth Prabhaker, proceeds going to Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled.

These books make wonderful presents - and for writers, submissions are now being accepted!

Masters of Technique: The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction is the first chess fiction anthology of contemporary stories, ever published. Mongoose Press has collected the best work from twelve of the most talented chess fiction writers of the past decade. In these rich and compelling stories, chess shines as a sophisticated metaphor, and fans of the game will applaud how chess is woven with technical accuracy into every narrative. All profits from Masters of Technique: The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction, help support multiple chess charities.

Speaking with the Angel is an anthology of 12 short stories by the likes of Nick Hornby, Melissa Bank, Dave Eggers, Helen Fielding and Zadie Smith, with £1 being donated from every copy to TreeHouse, a charity helping children with autism.




A few months ago, we reviewed Freedom, the short story anthology from Amnesty International which commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and raises money for Amnesty's work. Said our review: "When Amnesty International commissioned writers to celebrate the anniversary of the UDHR, they might have compiled a collection of articles, of reportage, of case studies. But choosing the short story form was, in my opinion, a brilliant idea. The greatest short stories don't just tell you something, they slip you beneath someone else's skin. And to really feel what the UDHR represents, what atrocities it is attempting to prevent, that is where we need to be."




Another book we reviewed was the One World anthology, stories from Malaysia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Botswana, Bangladesh, US, Cameroon, Wales, Greece, Zimbabwe, Kenya, India, Australia. All authors' royalites are donated to Médecins Sans Frontières.






The Girls Night In series of anthologies raise money for the charities War Child and No Strings - they have raised £1 million since 1999! Their latest books are Kids Night In 3 , short stories for children, and Girls Night In 4.

Megan Wynne's creative writing students in Skerries, Ireland, recently published Stories to Remember Us, with all proceeds being donated to Remember Us, a social support group for young people with special needs and their families.

Punk Fiction, which we reviewed here, is an anthology of short stories inspired by punk, with £1 from each copy sold will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Sexy Short for Chefs, "a tasty collection of sumptuous short stories mixed with delicious recipes" with a forward by Anthony Worrall-Thompson, is the latest in the Sexy Shorts  range of fund-raising anthology - this one donates £1 per copy to the Breast Cancer Campaign.

Also donating the proceeds to a breast cancer charity, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, this Australian anthology, Thank for the Mammories, is comprised of "entertaining stories from some of the world's most popular female authors celebrate bosoms great and small".

In 2007, Irish publishers Poolbeg brought out the anthology Thirty and Fabulous to celebrate their 30th birthday. All royalties were donated to Women's Aid.

 

Although this title is now out of print, it's worth of a mention. In 2004, heart scientist Stanley Salmons, a professor at Liverpool University's Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, published a collection of 23 short stories, Alexei's Tree, to raise money to support children in disaster zones. Money raised from the book was donated to the David Baum International Foundation, a charity that is training doctors at home and abroad to cope with the needs of children in deprived areas of the world.


Bridge House Publishing have announced that they will produce an annual charity short story anthology. The first will be a collection of animal stories for adults, to be published this year, with proceeds donated to Born Free.

Inspiration for anyone who wants to publish a fund-raising anthology! If you know of any more, please let us know in the Comments.

Short Circuit's Virtual Book Tour Lands Here!

We normally only talk about short story collections here at the Short Review, but we're making an exception in order to take part in the Virtual Book Tour for an excellent new book.  


Short Circuit: A Guide to the Art of the Short Story, edited by Short Review author and reviewer Vanessa Gebbie (Words from A Glass Bubble), and published by Salt Modern Fiction, is a collection of articles, essays and interviews on different aspects of the short story by working short story writers - including many Short Review authors and reviewers such as Clare Wigfall, Sarah Salway, Nuala Ni Chonchiur, Alison McLeod, Adam Marek, Elizabeth Baines, Elaine Chiew, Alex Keegan and David Gaffney (and myself - in the interests of full disclosure - TH).


Win yourself a free copy of the book - see the end of this post for more details.

While this is a book aimed at those writing short stories and we know that many of The Short Review's readers are also writers, I asked Vanessa the following question: Vanessa, this book is called A Guide to the Art of the Short Story, and since TSR is all about inspiring people to read more short stories, what do you think the book can do for readers? Can it help them get better acquainted with the short story and enhance the reading experience? If so, how?

VG: Excellent question! And as Short Circuit is, above all, honest, here’s the honest answer. Will non-writers rush out in their thousands to buy a book on how to write? I doubt it. A few may pick it up if their writer-partners wax lyrical about this wonderful new ‘how-to’ book. And I’d love to think that, because it is an engaging read, some readers will find in it the stuff of enjoyment anyway. 

I am told time and time again that Short Circuit is a ‘brave’ book. And I can’t help but shake my head. Why is it ‘brave’? It takes a straight look at the writing craft and the application processes of that craft for 24 different writers – all writing today, all being published today, all winning prizes today. It is not an academic treatise. I do not see how on earth creative writing is an academic pursuit – much as there are factions in the literary world who would like to make it so. It ain’t!

"If I write about ball-lightning that comes from between a woman's legs when she's aroused, will friends, privately, think I'm weird?" (From Alison MacLeod's essay, "Writing and Risk-Taking")

Having said that, I think we must be equally honest about the variety of processes in the act of reading – engaging with the products of creative writing. On one level, a reader looks for entertainment – to be taken out of themselves for a while, by following a complicated plot. The reader who actively seeks that experience, sustained for the length of time it takes to read a novel, who then switches to read a good short story, expecting it to deliver something similar, will be disappointed. 

How often have we heard the complaint, ‘but nothing much happens…’? I think the reader who may say this is missing the point. What ‘happens’ in a short story ‘happens’ to some extent in that space between the reader and the writer, the space reserved for the reader’s reactions, emotional responses, understanding, empathy. And it ‘happens’ too in the reader’s head. In their allowing themselves to be pulled right into the story and - as Graham Mort puts it so well in his essay - ‘completing’ it.

"I think people who enjoy short stories have a special gland, one that responds to the unexpected with little bursts of pleasure chemicals."(From Adam Marek's essay, "What My Gland Wants - Originality in the Short Story") 

There’s a film just out of Cormac McCarthy’s great novel, The Road.  Already tipped to be nominated as one of the films of 2010, The Road seems to polarise readers.  I’ve heard intelligent, searching readers complaining, “But nothing much happens…” while others say it is the best thing they’ve read, couldn’t put it down, life-changing. 

Maybe we’re coming close to understanding one of the issues here. I’ll let Carys Davies take up the thread. At the end of her contribution to Short Circuit, she says: "Cormac McCarthy’s The Road…possesses -  with its intense and beautifully rendered present set between  a cataclysmic past and a tentative, tantalising future – all the qualities of a brilliant short story," and I’d add the words, ‘IF it is read as intended, read with the active engagement demanded of any good short story.’

I think, if any reader picked up Short Circuit and flicked through the essays, they’d be blown sideways by the challenges faced by writers of successful short fiction. And they might just pick up some of the gems recommended by the contributors, to see what all the fuss is about...

Thanks so much, Vanessa! For a chance to win a free copy of Short Circuit: A Guide to the Art of the Short Story, visit the Competitions & Giveaways Page. For more information about the book and about the rest of the Virtual Book Tour, visit TheArtoftheShortStory.com.

Short Lit Bits Dec 2 - eBooks and Audio

New website Spoken Ink is a great addition to the short story audio download sites. Short stories read by professional actors - including stories by Short Review authors Vanessa Gebbie, Kevin Barry, Hassan Blasim (review coming soon), James Salter and Oscar Wilde, as well as many more contemporary and classic authors.

Short Review author Adam Maxwell has a free eBook of comic "festive tales", The Night Before The Christmas Before I Was Married, which sounds like just what is needed to perk us all up with all the seasonal chaos!

Short Lit Bits November

Electric Literature will begin a new venture in microserialization by tweeting Rick Moody's new story, Some Contemporary Characters, from Monday, November 30th to Wednesday, December 2nd. Follow at @ElectricLit.

Ray Bradbury has signed on with White Oak Films with the idea of creating a miniseries of six 1-hour episodes, all based on different short stories of Bradbury’s, says Screenrant.

Bonnie Jo Campbell was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction for her short story collection, American Salvage but sadly didn't win. More on MLive.com

The Wall Street Journal tells us that brevity can be a virtue: " From Alice Munro to Lydia Davis, short-story writers get fresh attention". Read more.

Simon Van Booy's short story collection Love Begins in Winter, winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, has been shortlisted for the 17th Bad Sex award, says the Guardian.

Los Angeles-based Wordtheatre, which lines up actors to read short stories, "a pairing that shows both in a flattering light," is opening in London, according to the LA Times Jacket Copy blog.

Granta Books has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to a new novel and collection of short stories by Chris Adrian, author of Gob's Grief and The Children's Hospital, says Booktrade.info

John Grisham releases his first short story collection, Ford County. Read more in the Madison County Journal.

The Creative Writing Corner blog talks about short stories vs novels: ""I'm more likely to read a short story from end-to-end rather than a trashy novel precisely because it's a significant waste of time, whereas the short fiction is a minor waste of time.""...

Read or listen to an interview with a master of short stories, William Trevor, on BBC Radio 3: "I really am a short story writer who also writes the occasional novel, not the other way round."

A week of short story collection events in the UK

What a wonderful week for short story events, featuring authors whose collections we have reviewed or are about to. If you are in the UK, what riches there are!

Oct 21st

Alison MacLeod (15 Modern Tales of Attraction) and Panos Karnezis (Little Infamies) chat about short stories at the Lancaster Lit Fest, chaired by Carys Davies (Some New Ambush)








Also: the launch of Matter Magazine Issue 9 in Sheffield, also featuring Alison MacLeod (15 Modern Tales of Attraction) and Adam Marek (Instruction Manual for Swallowing)

 Oct 23rd

The launch of Hassan Blasim's collection, The Madman of Freedom Square (our review coming soon), at the Calder Bookshop, 51 The Cut, London. More about this on the Comma Press website.

Oct 24th - a whole day celebrating short stories as part of the The Short Weekend at the Manchester Lit Fest:

The Launch of When It Changed - Science Into Fiction anthology
Geoff Ryman, Patricia Dunker, Liz Williams, Dr Tim O'Brien; Prof Steve Furber and Adam Marek (Instruction Manual for Swallowing)
Friends Meeting House, Manchester.

Bernard MacLaverty & Atef Abu Saif

Hassan Blasim (The Madman of Freedom Square) & David Constantine (The Sheiling (our review coming soon))

Chris Beckett (The Turing Test) ; James Lasdun (winner of the First National Short Story Award)

Paint a Vulgar Picture event






Find out more about The Short Weekend at the Manchester Lit Fest. I'm sure there's more going on that I missed, do let us know. Have a great week!

Guest post: Chris Fowler, author of 11 Short Story Collections, Talks Stories

The Short Review is delighted to welcome Christopher Fowler - whose tenth short story collection, Old Devil Moon, won the Edge Hill 2nd Prize 2008 and had seven other nominations, and his eleventh, The Horrors, features 14 new stories and is scheduled for summer 2010. Christopher talks about what a great short story is for him :
 
"Feelings, as Antonia Byatt recently noted, are ruining short stories. Detailed descriptions of emotional states don’t take the place of a good story well told.
 I don’t believe everyone can write – it’s not something you simply become passable at producing, like watercolours. A short story needs to surprise and entertain, but also needs an element that rings true; recognisable humanity. The opening of John Collier’s The Devil George And Rosie starts ‘There was a young man who was invariably spurned by the girls, not because he smelt at all bad but because he happened to be as ugly as a monkey.’ You want to read on.

My favourite short story volume is the anthology Black Water, edited by Alberto Manguel, a veritable encyclopedia of great tales. The book contains a famous story; David Garnett’s’ Lady Into Fox’, where the plot is actually embedded in the title.
 Tennessee Williams said ‘I don’t want realism. I want magic…I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth.’ I think tiny moments of magic can reveal great truths.

Short stories should be pleasurable to read. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Bottle Imp, a sailor buys a genii and has to sell him for less than he paid – which proves impossible. Stories are much more enjoyable when the main character is having a terrible time. Panic breeds action, and action adds pace – when I read tales in which a lonely woman stares out of a window at the rain, my heart sinks, because I know we are off to a slow start. It’s often the case that the reader is way ahead of the writer.

John Sladek wrote a story called Anxietal Register B which consists of a form to be filled in by the reader. Good ideas satisfy immensely. For this reason, I’m sure, Roald Dahl is often cited as the perfect short story writer, but in truth he’s part of a long historical line, from Poe to Saki, from E F Benson to Somerset Maughan. Dahl is easy to read; no crime, this – for some reason, certain writers go out of their way to be unreadable in short form. I’ve been guilty myself, once writing a story in futuristic phonetic teen slang.

A short story doesn’t need the kind of structure one would expect in a novel. It may even end before the main event. In J G Ballard’s The Watchtowers, ominous towers guard a frightened populace, and only begin to open and reveal their purpose in the last line of the story. The point of the plot is to highlight the effect that a police state has on ordinary people. In Shirley Jackson’s celebrated The Lottery, villagers stone a character to death, but there is no explanation provided that will allow us to comprehend their cruelty. The point of the story is that real cruelty is inexplicable. So the plot does not directly provide the reader with satisfaction. Rather, it is the author’s delivery method for the idea. In Daphne Du Murier’s The Birds, no explanation for the avian behaviour is given, and therein lies its power.

Of course, a plot is a skeleton; it is hidden under the skin. It needs characters and scenario to function. The perfect plot is one which emerges from the other two factors. "Don’t look now," says John to his wife, "but there are a couple of old girls two tables away who are trying to hypnotise me." John and Laura have lost a child, and are in Venice. John has a secret ability he has failed to recognize. The two old girls will ignite a terrible tragedy. Daphne Du Murier’s brilliant short story Don’t Look Now’ combines the three elements to perfection because they rely on each other. If the couple had not gone to Venice, if John had not been so blind, everything would have been different – but how often in life do we ask ourselves what would have happened if we’d only behaved differently?

A plot can’t simply be imposed on its characters, because free will must be exercised – but of course people are willfully blind, or too optimistic, or cruel, and this affects outcome. Kenneth Tynan once said that you don’t need to know why two people fall in love, you just need to know that they do.

The unexpected is important. It’s the element in any story that makes you want to describe it to others. ‘You’ll never guess what happened today’ is a phrase which begs the other person to undermine any surprise. I’m not a fan of trick endings unless they come naturally – we never see the best ones coming. In Don’t Look Now, the elements of the ending are put in place early on, and still we fail to spot the climactic tragedy. Mystery writing, in particular, is about the fair withholding of information. I stress ‘fair’ because it would be a cheat to reveal at the end that the protagonist is a dog, unless you can read the story a second time and see that it’s obvious. Hiding is not the same as withholding.

In Du Murier’s Adieu Sagesse. This plot concerns a dull 60 year-old banker with three daughters and a wife obsessed with appearance and status. He owns an old boat that has never been sailed, and lovingly tends it. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that he’ll soon give his family the finger before taking off for the open sea. After all, the title can be translated as Goodbye Common Sense. But instead of a closing scene in which the old man sails into a calm and glorious sunset, Du Murier makes him sail off into stormy grey seas. The suggestion is that it won’t be plain sailing, but at least he’s got away. It’s more realistic.


In my last collection I wrote a story called Cupped Hands after reading a newspaper report about African towns with no natural water supply. How do they survive? They have the water delivered in tankers. What if someone stole the truck? Why would they do that? Well, suppose they needed to leave town fast and there was no other vehicle? Suddenly I knew the story was there, because a moral problem had been created. The guy can save himself by stealing the truck, but will doom the stricken town.

So far I’ve had over 150 short stories published in ten collections. I’ve yet to write the perfect short story."

There are some who would beg to disagree, Chris! Read our review of Old Devil Moon and check out Christopher's website for more about his writing.

Simon Van Booy Wins 2009 Frank O'Connor award and Chris Beckett gets a two-novel deal

Congratulations to Simon Van Booy who is this year's winner of the 35,000 Euro Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for his collection, Love Begins in Winter! We will be reviewing the collection in the October issue, so hold your horses... In the meantime, for more about the winner read this article in today's Irish Examiner.

"I was very nervous coming to Cork for the Frank O’Connor Festival," said [Simon]. "But I stopped being nervous when I read the other short-listed books. I was shocked by the quality of the work, and I knew I had no hope of winning."

Also: congratulations to Chris Beckett, who won this year's Edge Hill Short Story Prize for his collection, The Turing Test. He has just signed a two-novel deal with the Corvus imprint of Grove Atlantic, and the first book will be The Holy Machine, published in the US by Prime. This is excellent news - even though the deal is for two novels, we hope Chris will carry on writing short stories!

Read our interview with Chris about the award and about his 20-year relationship with Interzone magazine.