Every time writers begin moaning about publisher's repudiation of the short story form, someone trots out a seemingly common sense argument: that our shortened attention span, created by electronic devices of all ilks, should make reader seek short stories more, not less. The argument goes that short stories can be read in one sitting, in […]
Thanks to Absinthe Minded (great name, by the way), for referring me to this article in the Goethe Institut about the literary journal/short story scene in Germany. Love the opening: “Like moles, literary magazines burrow through the subsoil and often bring literary treasures to light. They live on self-exploitation, are sometimes short-lived and bizarre, and […]
Over at Listverse, they do a great job of amassing a huge number of Top 10 Lists, but the ten greatest short story writers is wack. Okay, they have some shoo-ins (oh, and they limit it to American short story writers). O’Henry? I’ll grant that. Poe? Sure. Then debatables. Asimov? Well, he’s a talented writer, […]
The Guardian has released their summer short story bonanza, which includes some as short as a thousand words. Dave Eggers offers “A Fork Brought Along,” which has the amazing distinction of being the funniest story I’ve ever read about a fork. AM Holmes contributes “All Is Good Except The Rain” which has so much dialogue […]
Here’s a roundup of some of the reviews of Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel, “Inherent Vice,” which starts selling on August 4th. Of course, if you’re truly a devoted fan, you can find the midnight parties on the 3rd (hello, Skylight! I’d be there if I wasn’t flying out of state the night before!) Salon Review: […]
Electric Literature presents Jim Shepard’s “Your Fate Hurtles Down at You” (trailer) from Editors Electric Literature on Vimeo. Now even short stories are getting their own trailers. The folks at Electric Literature have created this animated video trailer from Jim Shepard’s “Your Fate Hurdles Down At You,” which was published in the first issue of […]
I’m on the road, typing this from an internet cafe that charges me 20 Colones per minute, so forgive me if this is short. I’ve been considering — since I’ve been away from my routine, about the public/private divide. I used to value them equally I thought — writing in my (private) journal had equal […]
Hey Loyal Readers, Posts will be slow in the next week because I'm backpacking through Costa Rica and working on an organic farm. I'll try to twitter some updates. Book in my backpack: Vonnegut's Bluebeard.
Ever since Roy won the Booker for "The God of Small Things," fans have been wanting more fiction. She´s been heading resoluting in another direction, though, one of nonfiction and political activism. (Although she admits to working on another novel). She now has four books of essays out. In a Guardian interview, she explains her […]
One of the best articles about organizing a story collection comes from David Jauss, in an article he wrote for Writer’s Chronicle, “Stacking Stones: Building a Unified Short Story Collection.” In it, he writes, “The placement of a story in a collection can alter both its meaning and its affect.” A bad order can ruin […]
