Interviews Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s astonishing debut novel, The House of Rust, winner of the inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize, arrived in October as if on a magical wave, imbued with an assortment of creatures—human and animal, real and imagined—that populate the city of Mombasa and its surrounding waters. Aisha, fierce and adventurous, sets off on a boat made of bones in hopes of rescuing her fisherman father who has disappeared at sea. What she encounters on her search—and return home—will enthrall and amaze. “On the surface this is a limpid tale,” writes author A. Igoni Barrett, the prize’s judge, “but it is eddied and enriched by what lurks beneath the surface of both the sea and the prose. Everything in this story sparkles.” I spoke with Bajaber about Mombasa, sea monsters, and Aisha’s journey of self-discovery, among other things. Anderson Tepper: Congratulations, Khadija. I’m curious about the story of your book’s path to publication. Did it change much since being awarded Graywolf’s Africa Prize in 2018? Khadija Abdalla Bajaber: Thank you very much. Well, it definitely changed and grew. When I’d first finished working on the book, it ended at what is now actually the midpoint. I was quite happy with that ending at the time but was already beginning to rethink things. There were subplots I’d set up at the beginning that needed resolving. So then I started developing everything more; and toward the end, when... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-15 21:42:08 UTC ]
‘The Dead’ is the most critically acclaimed and widely studied story in James Joyce’s Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories written by James Joyce and published in 1914. As we’ve remarked before, Dubliners is now regarded as one of the landmark texts of modernist literature, but initially... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-05-29 14:00:07 UTC ]
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Cassava Republic is to publish Unbury Our Dead, a literary novel by Mukoma Wa Ngugi, described as "a love letter to beauty, music and the imagination". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-14 07:38:11 UTC ]
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‘The Lost Decade’ is one of the shortest works by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), the American author best-known for The Great Gatsby. Published in Esquire magazine in December 1939, just one year before Fitzgerald died, ‘The Lost Decade’ is one of his most powerful short stories to deal with... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-04-17 14:00:20 UTC ]
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A National Book Award nominee's new children's books for Easter 2022, Matthew Paul Turner adds more kids' titles, podcaster Faitth Brooks has "a love letter to Black Women' in the works, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The latest addition to film historian David Thomson’s opinionated take on the film industry is notable for what it says — and what it doesn’t. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-12 07:00:00 UTC ]
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Japanese writer Haruki Murakami offers a collection of imaginative short stories with skewed elements that his many fans are sure to applaud. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-04-06 22:11:04 UTC ]
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The Folio Society‘s latest publication is a massive edition of all 118 of Philip K. Dick’s short stories, presented in this shockingly bright four-volume set. Their edition of The Complete Short Stories was designed by independent studio La Boca and includes original artworks commissioned from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-06 18:04:35 UTC ]
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Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate one book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. Now it’s your turn... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-31 20:04:23 UTC ]
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Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories written by James Joyce and published in 1914. As we’ve remarked before, Dubliners is now regarded as one of the landmark texts of modernist literature, but initially sales were poor, with just 379 copies being sold in the first year (famously, 120 […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-03-27 15:50:27 UTC ]
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“You Made Me Love You” collects short stories from throughout Wideman’s acclaimed career. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-26 20:23:09 UTC ]
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Whether it’s vampires or werewolves or mysterious patterns in wallpaper, writers of Gothic short stories have used all sorts of horrors and frights to chill our blood, ever since the horror short story developed in the early nineteenth century. Below, we pick ten of the very best Gothic horror... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-03-18 15:00:00 UTC ]
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Short, fun erotic short stories that will leave you wanting more! Check out the best erotic short stories that you need to pick ASAP. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-03-05 11:35:00 UTC ]
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‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories written by the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Subtitled ‘A Parable’, the story originally appeared in a gift book titled The Token and Atlantic Souvenir in 1836, before being collected in Hawthorne’s... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-02-27 15:00:46 UTC ]
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I also love the way that surreality and exaggeration can work in short stories in ways that they don’t often in novels. The wilder the conceit, the harder it is to sustain, like it’s rocket fuel. The post Resisting the Easy Impulse: Te-Ping Chen in Conversation with Brenda Peynado appeared first... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-02-26 10:59:07 UTC ]
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Charles Dickens (1812-70) is best-known for his fifteen novels and for shorter books like A Christmas Carol. However, Dickens’s was a restless talent, and during his publishing career that spanned more than thirty-five years, he also wrote countless articles, essays, and short stories. Although... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-02-25 15:00:13 UTC ]
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A “love letter to all the Black dancers that have paved and continue to pave the way”, Amber Barbee Pickens’ coloring book showcases stunning illustrations that also serve to educate about Black history in the arts. Learn more about the notable and inspiring historical figures from Blooming in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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What stands out in Ernest Hemingway’s short stories is their humanity, their feeling for human fragility. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-02-20 11:00:00 UTC ]
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In short stories like “The Immortals” and novels like “The Listeners,” Mr. Gunn helped prepare readers for the future. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-11 17:10:44 UTC ]
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There’s so much contemporary fiction released every day, it’s hard to keep track—and it’s hard to know which works will still be remembered in a year and which will slip into obscurity. Luckily, we have George Saunders to guide us. In an interview with Los Angeles Review of Books, Saunders was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-05 16:37:34 UTC ]
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At the Southern Review of Books, Justin Evans reflects on Breece D’J Pancake‘s celebrated collection of short stories from 1984, published five years after his death. “The stories of Breece D’J Pancake, by their own merit, are remarkably tied to the rural home of their author,” Evans writes.... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-01-29 21:30:19 UTC ]
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