Letter from the Editor - Hiatus

Letter from The Editor

The June 2012 issue will be the last Short Review issue for a little while, the journal will be on hiatus for at least a few months while we take stock and think, for the first time since its inception in 2007, about how to take it forward.

This journal began with me and a few of my friends and has grown beyond my wildest dreams - with over 50 reviewers worldwide. However, success and growth bring their own challenges and what has been done by me and my fantastic deputy editor, Diane, as a labour of love is now becoming somewhat of a burden on us. This is in great part due to technology, and we are in urgent need of funding in order to allow us to upgrade the website to make everyone's lives easier.

This is not the end of The Short Review, there is still nothing - as far as I know - out there fulfilling the same function, much as I wish there were ten such journals, and so we will find new ways to proceed, a new incarnation. We welcome your thoughts and ideas, please post in the comments.

While we are contemplating, please do check out check out our back issues and archives of reviews and interviews, you will find many many ideas of short story collections and anthologies to read! And enjoy our June issue...

See you back here soon.

All the best,
Tania

Editor, The Short Review

World Book Day

In honour of World Book Day today, April 23rd, we thought we'd step out of our English-speaking world and do a round-up of all the short story collections in translation that we have reviewed over the past 4 and a half years... Pick something you might not otherwise read and take a look... Happy World Book Day!

A Happy Man by Axel Thormählen

A Life on Paper: Stories by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud

Best European Fiction 2010 edited by Aleksander Hemon 

 

Best European Fiction 2012 edited by Aleksander Hemon

 

Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

The Book of Istanbul edited by Jim Hinks and Gul Turner

Blue Has No South by Alex Epstein


The Burning Plain by Juan Rulfo

Crimini: The Bitter Lemon Book of Italian Crime Fiction edited by Giancarlo de Cataldo

Freedom: Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Various Authors      

Gaza Blues by Etgar Keret and Samir el-Youssef

Gregory and Other Stories by Panos Ioannides

The House of Your Dream edited by Robert Alexander and Denis Maloney

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

The Life and Memoirs of Dr. Pi and Other Stories by Edgar Bayley

Life is a Dream by Gyula Krúdy

Loud Sparrows: Chinese Contemporary Short-shorts selected and translated by Aili Mu, Julie Chiu and Howard Goldblatt

The Madman of Freedom Square by Hassan Blasim

Midnight Convoy and Other Stories by S. Yizhar 

Paris Metro Tales translated by Helen Constantine

 

Passport to Crime by Various edited by Janet Hutchings

Qissat: Short Stories by Palestinian Women edited by Jo Glanville 

 

Tales of Galicia by Andzrej Stasiuk

There Once Was A Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

The Third Shore by Various

Travelling Light by Tove Jansson

The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Longlist 2012

Hot on the heels of the longlist for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize (for UK short story collections) comes the rather longer longlist for the €25,000 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award - it is brilliant resource to find new collections to read, there are some we've already reviewed (see links below), some the reviews are forthcoming, and many are new names, which is great. Good luck to all! Shortlist announced in June.

Steve Almond, God Bless America, Lookout Books, USA
A. J. Ashworth, Somewhere Else, or Even Here, Salt Publishing, UK
Diane Awerbuck, Cabin Fever, Umuzi, South Africa
Lou Beach, 420 Characters, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA
Frank Bill, Crimes in Southern Indiana, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, USA
Will Boast, Power Ballads, University of Iowa Press, USA
Greg Bottoms, Swallowing the Past, Texas Review Press, USA
Laura Boudreau, Suitable Precautions, Biblioasis, Canada
Shannon Cain, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors, University of Pittsburgh Press, USA
Neil Campbell, Pictures from Hopper, Salt Publishing, UK
Eileen Casey, Snow Shoes, Arlen House, Ireland
O Thiam Chin, The Rest of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It, ZI Publications, Singapore
Charles Christian, This is the Quickest Way Down, Proxima, UK
Dave Chua, The Beating, Ethos Books, Singapore
K. L. Cook, Love Songs for the Quarantined, Willow Springs Editions, USA
Mary Costello, The China Factory, The Stinging Fly Press, Ireland
Eugene Cross, Fires of Our Choosing, Dzanc Books, USA
Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda, Picador, USA
Stanley Donwood, Household Worms, Tangent Books, UK
Catherine Eisner, Listen Close to Me, Salt Publishing, UK
Nathan Englander, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Alfred A. Knopf, USA
Matthew Firth, Shag Carpet Action, Anvil Press, Canada
Órfhlaith Foyle, Somewhere in Minnesota, Arlen House, Ireland
Matthew Francis, Singing a Man to Death, Cinnamon Press, UK
David Galef, My Date With Neanderthal Woman, Dzanc Books, USA
Dagoberto Gilb, Before the End, After the Beginning, Grove Press, USA
Namita Gokhale, The Habit of Love, Penguin Group, India
Lorna Goodison, By Love Possessed, HarperCollins Publishers, Jamaica
Daniel Griffin, Stopping for Strangers, Véhicule Press, Canada
Tessa Hadley, Married Love, Jonathan Cape, UK
Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference, Faber and Faber, UK
Hanjum Hasan, Difficult Pleasures, Penguin Group, India
Tania Hershman, My Mother Was an Upright Piano, Tangent Books, UK
Keith Jardim, Near Open Water, Peepal Tree Press, USA
James Martyn Joyce, What’s not Said, Arlen House, Ireland
Suzanne Kamata, The Beautiful One Has Come, Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, USA
Jackie Kay, Reality, Reality, Picador, UK
Etgar Keret, Suddenly, a Knock in the Door, Chatto & Windus, Israel
Fiona Kidman, The Trouble With Fire, Random House, New Zealand
Zoe Lambert, The War Tour, Comma Press, UK
Krys Lee, Drifting House, Faber and Faber, USA – South Korea
Adam Levin, Hot Pink, McSweeney’s, USA
Peter Markus, We Make Mud, Dzanc Books, USA
Rowena Mcdonald, Smoked Meat, Flambard Press, UK
Jon McGregor, This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, Bloomsbury, UK
K. R. Meera, Yellow Is the Colour of Longing, Penguin Group, India
Ana Menendez, Adios, Happy Homeland!, Grove Press, USA
Clemens Meyer, All the Lights, And Other Stories, Germany
Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, HarperCollins Publishers, USA
Jim Mullarkey, And, Doire Press, Ireland
Sabina Murray, Tales of the New World, Grove Press, Australia
Stuart Nadler, The Book of Life, Picador, USA
Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Mother America, New Island, Ireland
Éllis Ní Dhuibne, Shelter of Neighbours, Blackstaff Press, Ireland
Joyce Carol Oates, The Corn Maiden, Grove Press, USA
Rajesh Parameswaran, I Am an Executioner, Bloomsbury, USA
Cassandra Parkin, New World Fairy Tales, Salt Publishing, UK
Lucia Perillo, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain, W. W. Norton & Company, USA
Dave Pescod, All Embracing, Route, UK
Alice Petersen, All the Voices Cry, Biblioasis, Canada
Stephanie Powell Watts, We Are Taking Only What We Need, BkMk Press, USA
Wayne Price, Furnace, Freight Books, UK
Stephanie Reents, The Kissing List, Hogarth, USA
Rebecca Rosenblum, The Big Dream, Biblioasis, Canada
Pamela Ryder, A Tendency to Be Gone, Dzanc Books, USA
Nathalie Serber, Shout Her Lovely Name, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA
Johanna Skibsrud, This Will Be Difficult to Explain, W. W. Norton & Company/ Hamish Hamilton, Canada
Yasuko Thanh, Floating Like the Dead, McClelland & Stewart, Canada
Lysley Tenorio, Monstress, HarperCollins Publisher, USA-Philippines
Laura Maylene Walter, Living Arrangements, BkMk Press, USA
Diane Williams, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty, McSweeney’s, USA
D. W. Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle, Bloomsbury/ Hamish Hamilton, Canada
Lucy Wood, Diving Belles, Bloomsbury, UK
Barbara Unković, Moon Walking, Old Line Publishing, Croatia
Dina Zaman, King of the Sea, Silverfish Books, Malaysia

Breakdown by Nationality
Australia 1
Canada 8
Croatia 1
Germany 1
India 3
Ireland 8
Israel 1
Jamaica 1
Malaysia 1
New Zealand 1
Singapore 2
South Africa 1
UK 17
USA 28
USA – Philippines 1
USA – South Korea 1

Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2012 Longlist

There are all too few prizes for published short story collections worldwide, so it's always exciting when one of them announces its longlist! The Edge Hill Short Story prize for UK short story collections has 3 components: The main literary award of £5,000, The £1,000 Readers' Choice, and a £500 student prize, which will reward one of the stars of Edge Hill University's MA Creative Writing course. The shortlist will be announced in May.

Here are the 31 collections longlisted for this year's Edge Hill Short Story prize, apparently a record number this year (with links to our reviews if we have already reviewed them):

• Nina Allan - The Silver Wind (Eibonvale). A regular contributor to Interzone and Black Static, and was short-listed for the 2010 British Fantasy Award in the Short Fiction category.
• Hanan Al-Shaykh - One Thousand and One Nights (Bloomsbury). The Lebanese novelist, short-story writer and playwright, is one of the leading contemporary women writers in the Arab world. Some of her wok has been banned in parts of the Middle East.
• Gaynor Arnold - Lying Together (Tindal Street Press). The former social worker was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2008 and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009.
• A.J Ashworth - Somewhere Else, Or Even Here (Salt Publishing). A prize-winning writer and this debut collection of short stories also won Salt Publishing's Scott Prize 2011.
• Neil Campbell - Pictures from Hopper (Salt Publishing). He has had numerous short stories and poems published in magazines.
• Charles Christian - This is the Quickest Way Down (PROXIMA Publishing). He is the founding editor of Ink Sweat & Tears.
• Stanley Donwood - Household Worms (Tangent Books). He is known for his close association with the British rock group Radiohead, having created all their album and poster art.
• Catherine Eisner - Listen Close To Me (Salt Publishing). Her fictions have appeared regularly in a number of UK literary journals and she is an Associate of the Royal College of Art.
• Stuart Evers - Ten Stories about Smoking (Picador). A former bookseller and editor, he now writes about books for the Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Time Out and many other publications.
• Orfhlaith Foyle - Somewhere in Minnesota (Arlen House). The writer and poet was born in Nigeria to Irish missionary parents. Living there as well as Kenya and Malawi has had a profound effect upon her writing.
• Sue Gee - Last Fling (Salt Publishing). An acclaimed novelist and controversial winner of the 1997 Romantic Novel of the Year Award.
• Tessa Hadley - Married Love (Cape). She reviews regularly for the London Review of Books and the Guardian and was short-listed for The Story Award in the US. She has also been a judge for the IMPAC literary prize 2011 and for the BBC Short Story Award 2011.
• Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference (Faber). The multi award-winning writer has been featured in The Times 100 Best Books of the Decade.
• Beda Higgins - Chameleon (Iron Press). The part-time nurse won first prize in the Mslexia Short Story Competition in 2009 and her work has been included in various anthologies and collections.
• Nigel Jarret - Funderland (Parthian). The Welsh freelance writer and former newspaper reporter is a winner of the Rhys Davies Prize for short fiction.
• Dave Jeffery - Campfire Chillers (Dark Continents Publishing). He is best known for his zombie novel Necropolis Rising, which has gone on to be a UK number one Bestseller.
• Fred Johnston - Dancing in the Asylum (Parthian). The writer, journalist and musician from Galway is also the founder of the Western Writers Centre.
• Zoe Lambert - The War Tour (Comma). The Creative Writing lecturer at the University of Bolton is finishing her first novel and is an active campaigner for the rights of asylum seekers.
• Stuart MacBride - Twelve Days of Winter: Crime at Christmas (Harper Collins). The Scottish writer is most famous for his crime thrillers.
• Rowena Macdonald - Smoked Meat (Flambard). This first collection is based on her experiences waitressing while travelling in Montreal.
• Felicity McCall - A Pitying of Doves (Guidhall Press). This is the first short-story collection from the Irish journalist and award-winning playwright, screenplay writer and novelist.
• Alan McCormick - Dogsbodies and Scumsters (Roast Books). A Writer in Residence with InterAct, a charity providing fiction readings for stroke patients, his stories have been widely published.
• Erinna Mettler - Starlings (Revenge Ink). After working at the British Film Institute for 13 years she decided to start writing in between raising a family and is now studying for her MA.
• Robert Minhinnick - The Keys of Babylon (Seren). The Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator has also been short-listed for the Sunday Times Short Story Award 2012.
• Jim Mullarkey - And (DoirePress). The runner-up in the 2003 Galway Cúirt Poetry Festival has recently facilitated creative writing workshops for adults with learning difficulties.
• Courttia Newland - A Book of Blues (Flambard Publishing). The rapper and music producer is a British writer of Jamaican and Bajan heritage who was short-listed for the 2010 Alfred Fagon Award and long-listed for the 2011 Frank O' Connor Award.
• Edna O'Brien - Saints and Sinners (Faber). Once banned in Ireland, the Irish author now has a string of awards under her belt and won the country's 2011 Frank O'Connor prize for this short story collection.
• Cassandra Parkin - New World Fairy Tales (Salt Publishing). An up-and-coming writer and winner of Salt Publishing's 2011 Scott Prize.
• David Rix - Feather (Eibonvale). A British writer in the areas of 'Horror' and modern Magic Realism/Speculative Fiction.
• Robert Shearman - Everyone's Just So, So Special (Big Finish). He is best known as a writer for Doctor Who and has been previously short-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
• Simon Kurt Unsworth - Quiet Houses (Dark Continents Publishing). The British writer of supernatural fiction was nominated for a 2008 World Fantasy Award and his work has been published in a number of anthologies.

The 2012 Scott Prize Shortlist

The shortlist for Salt Publishing's Scott Prize is announced! The winners will have their debut short story collections published. Winners announced in April; congratulations all! (Especially to our own Short Reviewer Julia Bohanna...!)

Julia Bohanna (England) – Ink Eyes

Carys Bray (England) – Sweet Home

Madeleine D’Arcy (Ireland) – Waiting for the Bullet and Other Stories

Rusty Dolleman (US) – Other People’s Kids

Sarah Faulkner (US) – American Heartbreaker

Maurice Gartshore (Scotland) – Mother Icarus

Otis Heschemeyer (US) – The Fantome of Fatma

Julie Mayhew (England) – End Of

Alison Moore (England) – A Small Window

Rob Roensch (US) – The Wild Flowers of Baltimore

Chris Smith (England) – Between the Toes of the Cloven Hoof

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.

The Story Prize announces its finalists

The prestigious $20,000 Story Prize, awarded annually to a short story collection published in the US has announced the finalists for 2011:

• The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo (Scribner) 
• We Others by Steven Millhauser (Alfred A. Knopf) 
• Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (Lookout Books) 

We have reviewed Edith Pearlman's stunning collection already (and Steven Millhauser's previous collection, Dangerous Laughter) - and the other two are on our pile - and frankly I don't envy the judges, having to decide between these three. I'd rather not have to! The winner will be announced in March. Good luck to all! Keep an eye on the Story prize blog for more about the prize and the finalists.

Happy Fourth Birthday to The Short Review!

Happy birthday! This month The Short Review turns four years old. 


439 story collections and anthologies reviewed, by our forty or so reviewers worldwide, and over 250 authors interviewed... We all do what we do for love of the short story and to spread the word about as many short story collections as possible so readers can get hold of them, demand them from their local bookshops or libraries, buy them as presents.  

Four years on, we are so overwhelmed with offers of collections to review that we have had to declare a hiatus in accepting new review copies so that we can catch our breath! A good sign, we think. A very good sign! How could you help us celebrate our birthday? Tell someone about a short story collection you love. Tell ten people. Spread it around!

This month's issue includes an unprecedented seven reviews of multi-author anthologies, which means that we are bringing you short stories by more authors than ever before! From women aloud to the bride stripped bare, the gold boy and the emerald girl, the best british and european fiction, what doesn't kill you if you're with the bears or on the Paris metro in nineteen seventysomething... and...


... Giveaways - In honour of our birthday - and of the UK's National Short Story Week - we are giving away NINE books: 4 of the books we are reviewing this month - and an extra 5 short story collections! You could win Best British Short Stories 2011, Best European Fiction 2012, the National Short Story Week charity audiobook anthology Women Aloud - and Affirm Press's Long Story Shorts set of six short story collections, which includes Barry Divola's Nineteen Seventysomething.

Visit the Competitions page to find out how to win.

2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize Shortlist

More congratulations are in order - to the six short story collection shortlisted for the seventh Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize, three of whom are Short Review authors, I'm delighted to say. The €35,000 will be awarded at the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland, in September.

Here is the shortlist -with links to the three we've already reviewed. Good luck to all!

1. Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li
2. Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod
3. Saints and Sinners by Edna O’Brin
4. Death is Not an Option by Suzanne Rivecca
5. The Empty Family by Colm Tóibin
6. Marry or Burn by Valerie Trueblood

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!

2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize Longlist

The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize has just announced its longlisted short story collections. As ever, it is a great list to start with if you're looking for some great reading material! As they say on their website, the award "is living up to its international credentials with a long list containing twelve UK writers, twenty-six Americans, four Irish, eight from Canada, two from India, two from Bulgaria and one each from Japan, Nigeria, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, China, Nepal and Spain, spanning four continents."

The non-voting chairman of the 2011 jury is Patrick Cotter, curator of the Award. The voting members of the jury are poet and novelist Thomas McCarthy who served also on the 2006 jury, Kinsale-based novelist and short story writer Alannah Hopkin and Guardian short story blogger Chris Power. This jury will announce a short list in July prior to the award ceremony in September during the Cork International Short Story Festival.

The longlist is as follows (with links to those collections The Short Review has already reviewed):


Clark Blaise The Meagre Tarmac Biblioasis USA

Summer Brenner My Life in Clothes Red Hen Press USA

Jo Cannon Insignificant Gestures Pewter Rose Press UK

Uttara Chauhan Blue Blood Penguin India Canada

Michael Christie The Beggar's Garden HarperCollins Canada Canada

Richard Cumyn The Young in Their Country Enfield and Wizenty Canada

Anthony Doerr Memory Wall Fourth Estate USA  review coming soon

Doug Dorst The Surf Guru Riverhead Books USA

Deyan Enev Circus Bulgaria Portobello Bulgaria

Danielle Evans Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self Riverhead Books USA

Stuart Evers Ten Stories about Smoking Picador UK

Edward Falco Burning Man Southern Methodist University Press USA

Siobhan Fallon You Know When the Men Are Gone Amy Einhorn Books USA

Roshi Fernando Homesick Impress UK

Karen Joy Fowler What I Didn't See Small Beer USA review coming soon

Vanessa Gebbie Storm Warning Salt UK review coming soon

Sue Gee Last Fling Salt UK

Ben Greenman Celebrity Chekhov Harper Perennial USA

Linda LeGarde Grover The Dance Boots University of Georgia Press USA

Tina May Hall The Physics of Imaginary Objects University of Pittsburgh Press USA review coming soon

Alan Heathcock Volt Graywolf USA

Ava Homa Echoes from the Other Land Tsar Canada

Valerie Laken Separate Kingdoms Harper Perennial USA

Yiyun Li Gold Boy, Emerald Girl Random House/ Fourth Estate China

Michael Kardos One Last Good Time Press 53 USA

Gitanjali Kolanad Sleeping with Movie Stars Penguin India India

Sean Mackel The River Guildhall Ireland

Alexander MacLeod Light Lifting Biblioasis Canada

Andre Mangeot True North Salt UK

Javier Marías While the Women are Sleeping Chatto and Windus Spain

Rob Mimpriss For His Warriors Gwasg y Bwthyn UK review coming soon

Mariko Nagai Georgic BkMk Japan

Prem Nath Crowded Rooms Penguin India India

Courttia Newland A Book of Blues Flambard UK review coming soon

Edna O'Brien Saints and Sinners Faber Ireland

Daniel Orozco Orientation Faber USA

Sue Orr  Random House New Zealand New Zealand

E.C.Osondu Voice of America Granta Books Nigeria

Kelcey Parker For Sale By Owner Kore USA

Miroslav Penkov East of the West Farrar, Straus & Giroux Bulgaria

Anne Perdue I'm a Registered Nurse Not a Whore Insomniac Canada

Andrew Plattner A Marriage of Convenience BkMk USA

Dawn Promislow Jewels Tsar Canada

Shann Ray American Masculine Graywolf USA

Mary Rechner Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women Propeller USA

Susannah Rickards Hot Kitchen Snow Salt UK

Suzanne Rivecca Death is Not an Option Norton USA

Moya Roddy Other People Wordsonthestreet Ireland

Ethel Rohan Cut Through the Bone Dark Sky Books Ireland

Gretchen Shirm Having Cried Wolf Affirm Australian

L.E. Smith Views Cost Extra Fomite USA

Christine Sneed Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry University of Massachusetts Press USA

Fiona Thackeray The Secret's in the Folding Pewter Rose Press UK

Rabi Thapa Nothing to Declare Penguin India Nepal

Colm Tóibín The Empty Family Viking Penguin Ireland

Matthew J. Trafford The Divinity Gene Douglas & McIntyre Canada

Jessica Treadway Please Come Back to Me University of Georgia Press USA

Paul Tremblay In the Mean Time ChiZine Publications USA

Valerie Trueblood Marry or Burn Counterpoint USA

Salley Vickers Aphrodite's Hat Fourth Estate UK review coming soon

Ferdinand Von Schirach Crime Chatto and Windus Germany

Tom Vowler The Method Salt UK

Susi Wyss The Civilized World Holt USA

Scott Prize winners and Edge Hill Short Story Prize shortlist

May is clearly a bumper month for short story collection news! First, congratulations to A J Ashworth, Jon Pinnock and Cassandra Parkin, the three winners of this year's Salt Publishing Scott Prize for debut short story collections. Their collections will be published in November, the UK's National Short Story Week. We look forward to our review copies!

And congratulations too to Short Review author Tom Vowler, whose collection, The Method, has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, alongside collections from Helen Simpson, Polly Samson,Graham Mort and Michele Roberts.Winners announced in July, good luck to all!

Short Story Month 2011: The Collection Giveaway Project

I was thrilled to receive an email from Erika Dreifus of the Fiction Writers' Review, about this new intiative for Short Story Month 2011, in May. Here's what it's all about: 

Inspired last year by the Emerging Writers Network—who inaugurated May as Short Story Month three years ago—and the Big Poetry Giveaway for National Poetry Month, Fiction Writers Review is excited to launch our second year of The Collection Giveaway Project: a community effort by lit bloggers to raise attention for short story collections. Warm thanks to FWR Contributing Editor Erika Dreifus, who suggested FWR as a home for this project last year and will not only be participating on her own blog, but will also be helping FWR run the project right here.

To participate in Short Story Month 2011: The Collection Giveaway Project , here’s what to do:

(1) Post an entry on your blog recommending a recently published short story collection (or two, or three).
The post can be long or short, a review or merely a rave. The one requirement is that you, the blogger, have read and loved the book(s) in question.
(2) Offer a copy of the book (or each book) as a giveaway to one lucky person who comments on your blog.
You can choose the winner through a drawing, or by the wittiness of his/her remarks, or by whatever criteria you choose.

NOTE for blogger-authors: You can absolutely give away a copy of your own collection—but in an effort to keep this as much about community as publicity, please also offer to give away a second book that isn’t one of yours.

(3) Announce the winner(s) on May 31, 2011, and arrange to send out copies of any books you are giving away.
If you’re participating, drop Erika an email at erika [at] fictionwritersreview.com to let us know. We’ll add you to the list of participating blogs/sites and link to you from this frequently updated page on our site.
Check back May 1 for the official launch, but we’ll update the list throughout May!

Edge Hill Prize 2011 Longlist Announced

The longlist has just been announced for Edge Hill University's Short Story Prize 2011. This is the fifth year of the prize,  the UK's only literary award for a published collection of stories - won last year by Jeremy Dyson, who is one of this year's judges, together with Stuart Maconie and Marcus Gipps. You can read our interview with prize organiser Ailsa Cox here. The shortlist will be unveiled in May.

Here is this year's longlist, with links to those we've reviewed, so you can check out some of what the fuss is all about!:

• Martin Bax - Memoirs of a Gone World (Salt Publishing). 
• Alan Beard - You Don't Have to Say (Tindal Street Press). review coming soon
• Peter Bromley - Sky Light and Other Stories (Biscuit).
• Jo Cannon - Insignificant Gestures (Pewter Rose Press).
• Roshi Fernando - Homesick (Impress Books).
• David Gaffney - The Half-life of Songs (Salt Publishing).
• Vanessa Gebbie - Storm Warning, Echoes of Conflict (Salt Publishing). review coming soon
• James Kelman - If it is Your Life (Penguin).
• Andre Mangeot - True North (Salt Publishing). review coming soon
• Jay Merill - God of the Pigeons (Salt Publishing). 
• Magnus Mills - Screwtop Thompson (Bloomsbury). 
• Graham Mort - Touch (Seren).
• Nik Perring - Not So Perfect (Roast Books).
• Susannah Rickards - Hot Kitchen Snow (Salt Publishing). review coming soon
• Michele Roberts - Mud, Stories and Sex and Love (Virago).
• Polly Samson - Perfect Lives (Virago). review coming soon
• Helen Simpson - Inflight Entertainment (Random House). 
• Fiona Thackeray - The Secret's in the Folding (Pewter Rose Press).
• Tom Vowler - The Method and Other Stories (Salt Publishing). 
• Susie Wild - The Art of Contraception (Parthian).

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.

Short Review Author Among Story Prize finalists

The $20,000 Story Prize, run by Larry Dark (who Sarah Salway interviewed for us here), is an very prestigious annual book award for short story collections written in English and published in the U.S. during a calendar year. It was won last year by Wells Tower for his collection, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.

The Prize has just announced its three finalists for 2010: Short Review author Suzanne Rivecca for her collection, Death is Not An Option, Yiyun Li for Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, and Anthony Doerr for Memory Wall. Congratulations to all! Winner announced March 3rd.

But that's not all - following the announcement of the finalists, Larry today posted the longlist, and this is an excellent place if you're looking for new short story collections to check out! It's a great resource for us, too - we have reviews in the works of half the collections on the list, will be checking out the other half. Congratulations to all!

Edge Hill Winners and Frank O'Connor shortlist

It was a win for the TV writers at the 2010 Edge Hill Short Story Prize ceremony this year: Jeremy Dyson, co-creator of The League of Gentlemen, scooped the main £5000 prize for his short story collection, The Cranes that Build the Cranes. The press release said this about the collection:

"Brimming with black humour and the promise of something sinister just around the corner, the collection explores the dark depths of the human condition, offering tales of death, disaster and - just occasionally - redemption, which captured the imagination of the judges"

 Congratulations to Jeremy, who said:

"...if you have it in your heart then write short stories and make sure you get them out there, enter competitions, send to magazines and make sure people read them....I'd just like to thank Edge Hill for running this award, it is hugely important and highlights that the short story is publishable and it is popular. It is the oldest form of writing and I hope that people recognise and celebrate this."

 The Short Review echoes that! And congrats too to Short Review author Rob Shearman - well-known as a writer for Doctor Who - whose new collection, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, won the inaugural £1000 Readers' Prize, judged by A Level students from the North West. Said Shearman:

"To win the Readers' Prize means so much to me because it raises the profile of what the short story is all about - it is readable and fun and builds a complete world. Knowing that my collection appealed to the younger generation is also thrilling because they are the writers of our tomorrow."

And, in an exciting week for short story collections, the shortlist for the 2010 Cork City - Frank O'Connor Short Story Award has just been announced:

1. If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This (Picador UK, 2010) by Robin Black (review coming soon)

2. Mattaponi Queen (Graywolf Press, 2010) by Belle Boggs

3.Wild Child (Bloomsbury, 2010) by TC Boyle

4.The Shieling (Comma Press, 2009) by David Constantine (read our review here)

5.Burning Bright (HarperCollins, 2010) by Ron Rash

6. What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009) by Laura van den Berg (read our review here)

The winner of the €35,000 award will be announced at the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival in mid-September. Congratulations and best of luck to all!

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!


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Cork City - Frank O’Connor Short Story Award Longlist

Here's the longlist of short story collections for the 2010 Cork City - Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, now in its sixth year. Say the organisers:

"The longlist is almost evenly split between women and men this year with 28 men and 26 women. The strength of the short story in the United States is reflected by that country’s overwhelming number of 21 longlistees. This year is also noted for a surge of entries from Asia, accounting for one fifth of all titles. There are three Irish nominees this year including Nuala Ni Chonchuir, the first author to be longlisted for the third time."

Congratulations indeed to Nuala, who is a Short Review reviewer as well as a reviewee! We have reviewed a number of these collections already, links provided. The shortlist will be announced on July 6th.

1	Temsula Ao (India)	Laburnum	Penguin
2	Richard Bausch (USA)	Something is out there: Stories by Richard Bausch	Alfred A. Knopf
3	Martin Bax (UK)	Memoirs of a Gone World	Salt
4	Pinckney Benedict (USA)	Miracle Boy and Other Stories	Press 53
5	Louis de Bernières (UK)	Notwithstanding	Harvill Secker
6	Belle Boggs (USA)	Mattaponi Queen: stories	Graywolf Press
7	T.C. Boyle (USA)	Wild Child	Bloomsbury
8	O Thiam Chin (Singapore)	Never Been Better	MPH  Publishing
9	Kunzang Choden (Bhutan)	Tales in Colour and Other Stories	Zubaan – Penguin
10	Craig Cliff (New Zealand)	A Man Melting	Vintage – Random House
11	Venita Coelho (India)	The Washer of the Dead	Zubaan – Penguin
12	Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Ireland)	Nude	Salt  - also longlisted for the Edge Hill prize
13	David Constantine (UK)	The Shieling	Comma Press also longlisted for the Edge Hill prize
14	Jameson Currier (USA)	The Haunted Heart and Other Tales	Lethe Press
15	Brian Joseph Davies (Canada)	Ronald Reagan, My Father	ECW Press
16	Deyan Enev (Bulgaria)	Circus Bulgaria	Portobello Books
17	Anne Finger (USA)	Call The Ahab	University of Nebraska Press
18	Patrick Gale (UK)	Gentleman’s Relish	Fourth Estate also longlisted for the Edge Hill prize
19	Angelica Garnett (UK)	The Unspoken Truth	Chatto and Windus – Random House
20	Holly Goddard Jones (USA)	Girl Trouble	Harper Perennial
21	Perry Glasser (USA)	Dangerous Places	BkMk Press
22	Alyson Hagy (USA)	Ghosts of Wyoming	Graywolf Press
23	Dhruba Hazarika (India)	Luck	Penguin
24	Mark Illis (UK)	Tender	Salt also longlisted for the Edge Hill prize
25	Barb Johnson (USA)	More of This World or Maybe Another	Harper Perennial *review coming soon*
26	Lorraine M. López (USA)	Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories	BkMk Press, *review coming soon*
27	Thomas Lynch (USA)	Apparition and Late Fictions: a novella and stories	Jonathan Cape – Random House *review coming soon*
28	Paul Magrs (UK)	Twelve Stories	Salt *review coming soon*
29	Martin Malone (Ireland)	The Mango War: and other stories	New Island
30	Owen Marshall (New Zealand)	Living as a Moon	Vintage – Random House
31	Donal McLaughlin (Northern Ireland)	An Allergic Reaction to National Anthems	Argyll Publishing
32	Lori Ostlund (USA)	The Bigness of the world	University of Georgia Press
33	Manoj  Kumar Panda (India)	The Bone Garden and Other Stories	Rupantar
34	Wena Poon (Singapore)	The Proper Care of Foxes	Ethos Books
35	Dawn Raffel (USA)	Further Adventures in the Restless Universe	Dzanc Books
36	Mahmud Rahman (Bangladesh)	Killing the Water	Penguin
37	Ron Rash (USA)	Burning Bright	Ecco; Harper Collins
38	Peter Robinson (UK)	The Price Of Love: And Other Stories	McClelland and Stewart
39	Anne Sanow (USA)	Triple Time	Pittsburgh University Press
40	Sarah Selecky (Canada)	This Cake Is for the Party	Thomas Allen Publishers
41	Bubul Sharma (India)	Eating Women, Telling Tales: Stories about Food	Zubaan - Penguin
42	Robert Shearman (UK)	Love songs for the shy and cynical	Big Finish also longlisted for the Edge Hill prize
43	Sam Sheppard (USA)	Day out of Days	Alfred A. Knopf
44	Anis Shivani (USA)	Anatolia and Other Stories	Black Lawrence Press
45	Louise Stern (USA)	Chattering: Stories	Granta
46	Kalpana Swaminathan (India)	Venus Crossing	Penguin
47	Justin Taylor (USA)	Everything here is the best thing ever	Harper Perennial
48	Ruth Thomas (UK)	Super Girl	Faber and Faber
49	Laura van den Berg (USA)	What the world will look like when all the water leaves us	Dzanc Books *review coming soon*
50	David T. K. Wong (China)	Chinese Stories in Times of Change	Asian Stories - Muse
51	Tiphanie Yanique (US Virgin Islands)	How To Escape From A Leper Colony	Graywolf Press
52	Michele Roberts (UK)	Mud: Stories of Sex and Love	Little Brown
53	Helen Simpson (UK)	In-Flight Entertainment	Cape
54	Billie Livingston (Canada)	Greedy Little Eyes	Random House Canada