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!

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

Edge Hill Short Story Prize Longlist Announced

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize, now in its third year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short stories, and this year they have announced a longlist of 18 titles, which will be whittled down to a shortlist.  Ailsa Cox, the organizer of the prize, gave us a sneak peak behind the scenes last year here on the blog and Chris Beckett, last year's winner and one of this year's judges, talked about his relationship with UK magazine Interzone here.

The longlist of 18 contains 9 authors we've reviewed, so click on the links to find out more about what TSR's reviewers thought. Good luck to all!

• Regi Claire - Fighting It (Two Ravens Press).
• David Constantine - The Sheiling (Comma Press). 
• Jeremy Dyson - The Cranes that Build Cranes (Little Brown). 
• Jane Feaver - with Love Me Tender (Random House).
• Patrick Gale - Gentleman's Relish (Harper Collins).
• Sian Hughes - The Beach Hut (Biscuit Publishing). 
• Mark Illis - Tender (Salt Publishing). 
• A.L. Kennedy - What Becomes (Jonathan Cape).
• Tom Lee - Greenfly (Harvill Secker).
• Michael J Farrell - Life in the Universe (The Stinging Fly). 
• Ben Moor - More Trees To Climb (Portobello). 
• Nuala Ní Chonchúir - Nude (Salt Publishing).
• Philip O Ceallaigh - The Pleasant Light of Day (Penguin).
• Robert Shearman - Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical(Big Finish)
• Charles Stross - Wireless (Little Brown).
• Craig Taylor - One Million Tiny Plays About Britain (Bloomsbury).
• Douglas Thompson - Ultrameta (Eibonvale Press).
• Simon Van Booy - Love Begins in Winter (Beautiful Books).

Short Lit Bits March

• Short-stories-on-film #1: Electric Literature has released a new video, for Matt Sumell’s story, Little Things, animated by Vance Reeser. Sumell is the first "emerging" writer to feature in EL alongside the big names.

• Congratulations #1: to Comma Press and to Short Review author Hassan Blassim, whose collection, The Madman of Freedom Square, is longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction prize.

• Going the self-publishing route #1: "Two-time PEN/Faulkner winner and National Book Award finalist ...John Edgar Wideman will be releasing his latest collection of short stories via Lulu, a self-publishing company that releases submitted work either as an e-book or printed-on-demand. Briefs: Stories for the Palm of the Mind, available starting March 14, will be one of few works from an already established author to bypass the mainstream industry entirely..." says The New Podler Review of Books.

• Congratulations #2: to Short Review author Stefanie Freele whose collection, Feeding Strays, is longlisted for the ForeWord Review's Book of the Year award in the Short Fiction category.

• Couldn't-they-find-real-short-story-writers? #1: "Leading British novelists have created short stories to accompany portraits of unidentified Elizabethan courtiers, musicians, soldiers and writers for a new exhibition at Montacute House nr Yeovil in Somerset for the National Portrait Gallery" says the Telegraph.

• Good news for short stories#1: "The Atlantic Renews Commitment to Short Stories...  The Atlantic is going to start publishing fiction again. So no more of those newstand-only summer fiction issues (which were good, though, especially the 2008 one that highlighted emerging authors). Instead, a supplement will accompany the May issue that will include half a dozen short stories and -- obligatory for all American magazines, for every single issue -- an essay from the ubiquitous Joyce Carol Oates." More here from BookFox.
  
  Congratulations #3: To Alberta author Stuart Ross, whose short story collection, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, is shortlisted for the Alberta Readers' Choice awards, says the Northumberland News.
  
  
  

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 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!

June issue out now!

With this issue we welcome TSR's new deputy editor, Diane Becker, very glad to have her!

And in a bumper issue this month (well, ok, it's the same size, but packed with goodness!)....Reviews of:

(click on the pic to read the review)

as well as interviews with Matt Bell, Mathias B. Freese, Josephine Rowe, Anne Donovan, Barry Graham and Pat Jourdan. Could you want more? I don't think so.

So much great short story news!

Where to begin? What a week! The biggest short story news surely must be today's announcement that Canadian writer Alice Munro has won this year's Man Booker Prize. An award-winning short story writer, a recent article in the Canadian National Post newspaper reports that Munro pokes fun at the attitude to short stories in a new story of hers, Fiction, in which the main character discovers she is a character in a book.

"When she finds out it's not a novel, it's a collection of short stories, she's horrified," says her editor, Doug Gibson. In the story, Munro writes, "It was as if the author was hanging on the gates of literature rather than fully admitted inside because she was only writing short stories."

The Man Booker judges, Jane Smiley, writer; Amit Chaudhuri, writer, academic and musician; and writer, film script writer and essayist, Andrey Kurkov, said:

‘Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.'

While those of us who understand very well the power of the short story would take issue with the "and yet" - we should hold our tongues and just celebrate this wonderful news that a stunning and inspirational writer has been recognised! Alice Munro's new collection, Too Much Happiness, will be published in October. Can't wait. Visit Alice Munro's Wikipedia page for more information.

Second, the Wales Book of the Year award English-language shortlist is announced, and it is novel-free: two short story collections and a collection of poetry, and all by female authors. Deborah Kay Davies' debut short story collection, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, a short story collection from award-winning novelist Gee Williams, Blood Etc, and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch's second collection of poetry, Not in These Shoes. Congratulations to all. The winner will be announced on June 15th.




Back to Canada, Pasha Malla has won the Danuta Gleed Literary Prize for his collection, The Withdrawal Method. Says the National Post:

The $10,000 prize – named in memory of the writer Danuta Gleed, and administered by the Writers' Union of Canada – toasts the nation's best English-language debut short fiction collection.