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March 2, 2008This blog has moved. It can now be found here.
Love stories for Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2008The Guardian has an article by Jeffrey Eugenides on what he had to do to select the love stories for the new anthology, My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead, which we review in this month’s issue.
Says the Guardian:
For a year, Jeffrey Eugenides read nothing but love stories in order to select the best for an anthology. With the tormented poet Catullus as his guide, he went from Chekhov to Nabokov to Alice Munro and discovered that the greatest works depend on disappointment, boredom and broken hearts. Click here for the rest of the article.
Author interviews… a new section
February 11, 2008I have just added a new section to The Short Review: Author Interviews. This is turning into a very popular feature on the site, and for me personally, as a writer, these interviews with authors about how they write, how they put their collections together, what they are working on now, are fascinating and illuminating. A few excerpts:
Rusty Barnes, author of the flash fiction collection Breaking it Down, says: “I write to be read, yes — I love to be read above all things now — but I write only to please myself. I mean, I have my obsessions, my concerns, and a good sense of what’s out there in the world being written, and I think what I write has a place in that world, and it’s up to me to figure out ways to get it out there, to get it to readers.”
Nona Caspers, author of Heavier than Air, introduced me to the concept of MA: “I love how stories use MA space, MA being a Japanese word for the space between things that seems empty but is actually full and creates harmony. The space between the individual stories also allows for that feeling of MA.”
For Sarah Salway, author of Leading the Dance, knowing that people were reading her book made her feel sick “in case they didn’t like it, or thought I was ‘odd’. But now I’ve come to terms with the fact that there will always be some people who won’t like my stuff and also that I am definitely ‘odd’ ! There’s not much I can do about it, so am just happy when people tell me they’ve enjoyed and/or got something out of reading my stories.”
“I used to try to write for agents, or certain readers I imagined impressing,” says Claudia Smith, author of the flash collection The Sky is A Well, “and I think that got in the way. I write for the story, for what feels true to me as I am writing it. I think my work improved once I learned to do that, and it took me years to find my voice. I do workshop many of my short-shorts with an online writing group, and I know that has influenced them immensely. I have written with these writers for years, so I trust them.”
There are more interviews up on the site, and more coming soon: Carys Davies, Kim Newman, Roy Kesey…. Stay tuned!
Issue 4 has hit the (virtual) newstands
February 6, 2008Issue 4 Feb 08 of The Short Review is now available with reviews of debut collections:
Rebecca Barry’s Later At the Bar - interconnected stories set in a small American town;
Comedian and writer Alexei Sayle’s Barcelona Plates;
Courttia Newland’s Music for the Off-Key: 12 Macabre Short Stories;
Sarah Salway’s Leading the Dance from small, vibrant UK press Bluechrome;
Highly-acclaimed Irish writer Roddy Doyle’s first short fiction collection, The Deportees
as well as reviews of the Norton Book of Science Fiction, the Best American Mystery Stories of 2007, David Gaffney’s second collection, Aromabingo, Ali Smith’s classic collection, Other Stories and Other Stories, and our Valentine’s special: My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, edited by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The author interviews section of the site is blossoming too, with writers talking about their collections, how they came about, how it feels to know that people are reading your book, and how they approach the writing process.
“I’m drawn to writing about life’s essential forces” says Alison MacLeod, author of Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction.
“I write for the story, for what feels true to me”, says Claudia Smith, whose flash collection, The Sky is a Well, won the Rose Metal Press chapbook contest.
“I tend to write in clusters.. so there will be groups of themes” says David Gaffney, whose second collection, Aromabingo, has just been published by UK small press Salt Publishing.
“My best writing comes out of love or grief,” says Nona Caspers, author of Heavier Than Air.
“For a while I was just writing for people I drank with” says Rebecca Barry, whose debut collection, Later At the Bar, our review described as “a clear-eyed look at a boozy world”.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that there will always be some people who won’t like my stuff and also that I am definitely ‘odd’ ! ” says Sarah Salway, author of Leading the Dance.
Come and browse the newly added reviews and interviews, check out our list of collections forthcoming this year, and follow the links to more review sites, blogs and articles about short stories.
Happy reading!
Tania
The Sunday Salon: Stunning short stories
January 27, 2008
It’s been a while since I blogged for The Sunday Salon, mainly because Sunday isn’t a day of rest over here, it’s the first day of the working week. But I have found a few minutes to mention the stunning short story collection I am reading right now, All Over, by Roy Kesey, published by Dzanc Books.
I was sent a review copy of this book and am reviewing it for The Short Review. I have never having read anything by Kesey, but I knew from the opening lines of the first story that he is a writer after my own heart. He loves playing with words and with language. There are quite a few words I have never heard before - I don’t know if he has made them up or if I should get the dictionary out and expand my vocabulary! And some of the stories have Spanish titles, and there are characters of so many nationalities in this book, it is wondrous.
I would say that Kesey falls into the quirky/magical realist camp, for the most part. A reader can’t assume that he or she is in the real world when embarking on these stories, but they are so beautifully written, their worlds are so consistent and compelling, that I willingly suspended disbelief and dove in.
I have read the whole collection first as a reader and am now re-reading it with my reviewer’s hat on, and seeing things I didn’t see the first time through - certain themes, the way endings are both shocking and satisying, a lack of names and places. Several of the stories seem totally nonsensical, yet they also manage to be poignant and sharp.
There are several stories that just didn’t speak to me, as is the case with most collections. I didn’t “get” what was going on, I was left too confused. But for the most part, I highly recommend this to all lovers of language and fantastic - and fantastical - writing.
Mslexia and The Short Review
January 17, 2008Mslexia, the magazine for women writers which I have found to be an invaluable resource since it began, several years ago, has highlighted The Short Review in its On the Net section, saying:
Created to make up for the lack of reviews currently allocated to the short story genre, this user-friendly site provides a much needed platform for original reviews of story collections and anthologies. New as well as classic collections are covered, giving those who aren’t overly familiar with the genre recommendations with which to catch up. Reviews are written by short story writers with many including links to reviews by other publications, for quick, easy access to more opinions. The simple, clean design makes navigating your way around the site very easy and the “if you liked this you might also like’ link attached to each review is a helpful addition. The browse feature also gives you several ways to search for something to read. Follow the links to the site’s founder and editor Tania Hershman’s blog for more reviews - and your chance to comment.
This is a wonderful endorsement and should, I hope, draw more people to The Short Review and give short story collections more exposure. Thank you, Mslexia!
Where do all these collections go?
January 4, 2008I have spent hours and hours on a new feature on The Short Review site: a list of the short story collections that are scheduled to be published in 2008. I had never seen such a list and I thought it would be interesting, for me, for other short story writers, and for those who love to read them. You can find it here.
Frankly, I was astonished at what I found. It took a lot of work - I went through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk with a fine tooth comb because when I did a search for “short stories” hundreds of results came up but I had to check each one and many of them were not actually short story collections. (Not sure how Amazon’s search algorithms work!) But it was wonderful because I found hundreds of collections of all flavours: in English, in translations, new collections, re-releases of classics, lots of Best of… everything, sci fi, erotica, gay stories, Bedouin women’s fiction… A treasure trove of reading material.
I am still working on it because I am finding new titles all the time - please let me know if you have a title to add - but it also makes me sad. I had no idea that this number of collections and anthologies was being published (presumably last year was similar) and I am a fan of the short story who is actively looking for collections to read. How many of them actually sell decent numbers? How many of them get decent reviews? What happens to all these collections?
I do know, of course, that of the thousands of novels published each year, only a small fraction of those get attention, that a novelist - whether new or with several books under her or his belt - faces quite a challenge getting a book into the review sections. It’s a very tough market.
If you are the author of a collection coming out this year, maybe you’d like to keep us abreast of what happens when your collection is published, and what you and your publishers have to do to get the word out. If 2007 was the year your collection came out, let us know how that went.
In the meantime, the list is growing and growing….
Issue 3 is online
January 3, 2008A New Year, ten new reviews, author interviews, a sneak preview of short story collections forthcoming in 2008……these are just some of the treats on offer in Issue 3 of The Short Review. If you haven’t already, pop into the site and sign up for our mailing list so you don’t miss out.
On the menu this month:
Sparkling debuts :
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It’s a Crime:
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Flashes of brilliance:
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Must-read Classics:
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In translation:
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Many voices:
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| Author Interviews Links
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Head over and find yourself something to read.
The Short Story Reading Challenge
December 30, 2007I have just come across this wonderful initiative from Kate of Kate’s Book Blog. She is a short story fan and in an attempt to inspire others to turn more frequently to this most wonderful of forms, she is hosting a Short Story Reading Challenge in 2008. What does this mean? Well, she offers five different options for joining in the challenge, from committing to reading ten short stories in a year to, for the more seasoned short story reader, reading ten story collections by writers you have never read before - or picking a set of stories to read by genre, geographical location or other theme.
Kate kindly recommended that participants head over to The Short Review to find something to read - thank you, Kate! Another ten reviews coming in Issue 3 on Jan 3rd - so we will reciprocate by recommending that you head over to the The Short Story Reading Challenge blog and sign up. Ten stories in a year is the minimum - you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Kudos to you, Kate.
The Sunday Salon : Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction
December 16, 2007
And so far, I am enjoying it immensely. The first two stories were wonderful.Today I am reading the third story, Live Wire. From the first sentence,
“You used to say you knew I was in a room before you saw me”
I know that we are, like the first story, in a piece where the narrator is talking directly to “you”. This is a technique that I like a lot, when done well. It doesn’t always work, can come across as if you are being ordered around. But right now, I am open to seeing where this goes. Very intriguing opening line. I want to know who they are, and what is going on between them that one of them can “feel” the presence of another!
But then, in the second paragraph, we don’t find out… The second paragraph begins “Energy is eternal delight,” and then we are flashed back to childhood, to wonderful images of how the narrator as a child would experience static electricity from the “creamy shag carpet” and shock her mother, whose elbow is described as “wrinkled and vulnerable”.
It isn’t til the fourth paragraph that we are given a clue about their relationship - “That first time, I called you Dr Numb” and we discover that she (I am assuming) was the patient and he the aneasthetist. We don’t know what is happening exactly. Then comes a stunning, poetic description of how it felt to go under.
“In no time at all I was inhaling the sweet smell of halothane and rising, over the song of the electrocardiogram, over you, over the balding head of Dr Burns, as if I were moving through water. Far below me, electrical storms were raging in the darkness, and in that upside-down, head-over-heels world, I was the golden key on the kite. The live wire. The finger of Adam. The spark in the synapse. You stood and watched seventy volts of electricity enter me, and in that moment, you wanted to enter me too. “
My god! Has there ever been a more highly-charged beginning to a romance?
Their first date is just as quirky, sitting with take-out coffee in a hospital bus shelter, she asking him about whether he has ever seen a dead body, the dialogue not on a separate line, without quote marks, so it just flows as if it were stream of consciousness. Our narrator, Gloria, then tells us how “talk of the weather became our private language, a code for intimacy and evasion”, and we learn about weather references and what they come to mean to the two lovers.
At this point, I am just loving the astonishing originality of what is essentially a description of somewhere most of us have been: the beginning of a relationship. The writing is thrilling me, I am in love with it and dying to know what happens next. Their talk of tornados, electromagnetism, to me has a veiled threat of upcoming disaster. We’ll see.
The next section carries this through. Turns out :
“You never asked what was wrong with me, though you were there, administering my halothane breeze at ninety, one hundred and one hundred and ten volts. Two sessions per week. Four weeks of treatment. Perhaps you had seen the case notes. You would have assumed mania. I spoke too fast, thought too fast, slept too little, sensed too much, and craved a life for ever in the moment as much as you craved the ephemera of the past.”
It is a little odd already that he hasn’t asked why she is getting electric shock treatment. Hmm.
Then, suddenly, we are on the eve of her final treatment and the voltage is to be turned up because “ Dr Burns has yet to find my seizure threshold,” and she and he start to talk about what he calls “awareness”, the nightmare state in which a patient is awake and conscious during a treatment, in terrible pain but unable to move. She explodes in a manic fit, shouting and screaming.
We are at her final treatment session, and suddenly “you”, the aneastheologist, isn’t there, someone else is administering the anaesthetic, and she panics, tries to leave. I won’t spoil the ending of this ten-page short story, but suffice it to say it is beautiful, painful, true and shocking, sad and real.
I can’t recommend this collection enough. I’ve only read three stories, but Alison MacLeod is fast becoming one of my favourite writers.
