With soaring sales, viral hits like Cat Person and a cameo by Tom Hanks, the form seems to be staging a comeback. But did it ever go away?In 2017, almost 50% more short story collections were sold than in the previous year. It was the best year for short stories since 2010. Booksellers are reporting a surge in popularity for the form, commentators note publishers are buying more collections and issuing them with greater care and enthusiasm; in December the newcomer Kristen Roupenian cut five- and seven-figure deals in the UK and US after her New Yorker story “Cat Person” went viral. On top of all that, collections are being reviewed more than ever before, the Sunday Times EFG short story award (worth £30,000) has received its highest ever number of entries and the BBC national short story award continues to grow in popularity. We are experiencing the renaissance of the short story form, right?Wrong; which isn’t to say 2017 wasn’t a good year for the short story – it was, but the “renaissance of the short story” story is an old one that is rolled out year after year. Does that matter? I think it does. By getting caught up in this recurring phantom narrative, and dwelling on press release froth rather than the work being produced, we spurn the opportunity to talk about short stories in a way that might actually deepen how they are understood and engaged with by readers.How can the short story ever have time to wither, given the frequency of its rebirth?In the cases of Tom... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
Jojo Moyes is "still" top of the Weekly E-Book Ranking, as Still Me, the third title in her million-copy-selling Me Before You trilogy, spent a second week as the UK’s bestselling ebook. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jojo Moyes has the #8 book in the country with her latest Lou Clark novel, ‘Still Me.’ Plus the ‘New York Times’ and PBS team up for a bestseller-boosting book club, and a YA debut offers a happily-ever-after to its author, if not its readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hardly anyone reads New Zealand adult fiction. Printed books comprise about two-thirds of all books sold in this country, but Kiwis are a pragmatic bunch and by far the most books we buy are cookbooks and sports biographies. Printed fiction is likely to be less than a half of adult fiction sold,... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2018-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The London Book & Screen Week line-up has been revealed and includes a screening of Jojo Moyes' "Me Before You", an evening to celebrate 200 years of Frankenstein and a sing-along screening of "Mary Poppins". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hutchinson has revealed it is publishing a posthumous collection of "powerful" short stories by Helen Dunmore, a day after the late author was given the Costa Award for Poetry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster US, will publish the debut short story collection of Kristen Roupenian, the author of "Cat Person" in America. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kristen Roupenian, the author of “Cat Person,” a fiction piece in The New Yorker that became a viral phenomenon, has agreed to a two-book deal. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2017-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The debut book from Kristen Roupenian, whose New Yorker short story “Cat Person” went viral far beyond the scope of most short fiction when it was published earlier this month, has been sold to British publisher Jonathan Cape, the Guardian reports. Roupenian's short story collection, “You Know... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury warns UK’s exclusive English rights across EU will end, with firms fighting US companies in an open marketThe next generation of British authors could struggle to land a book deal after Brexit, according to the publisher who launched Harry Potter writer JK... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has scooped the debut book from Kristen Roupenian, the author of 'Cat Person', a short story published in the New Yorker this week which went viral and triggered a wave of media coverage. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Children’s will publish what is believed to be the first ever all-female authored Doctor Who collection of short stories, with input from writers Jenny Colgan, Dorothy Koomson, Scottish comedian Susan Calman and Doctor Who author Jacqueline Rayner. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A short story about an awkward, troubling sexual encounter has gone viral, drawing a "record-breaking" number of online views. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Raymond Chandler, the crime novelist, in 1946. One of his short stories, “It’s All Right — He Only Died,” was recently discovered and published by Strand Magazine, a literary quarterly. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2017-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Emily Ford has won the £1,000 RSL VS Pritchett Short Story Prize 2017 for her short story "The Hikers". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Every era has its own fairy tales—fables that teach children what a princess looks like, and what monsters they should fear. According to the short stories in Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado’s exhilarating debut collection, a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction, our... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2017-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Orion has acquired "a hilarious and heartwarming" début by Caroline Hulse at auction and a collection of short stories from Man Booker shortlistee Emily Fridlund. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Walker Books will publish a new collection of short stories from American YA author Cassandra Clare featuring characters from the bestselling Shadowhunter world. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oxfam and Moomin Characters Ltd are launching a campaign around short story "The Invisible Child", by Moomin creator Tove Jansson, to help women and girls around the world to fight inequality and escape poverty. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Birkbeck, University of London has launched a new literary anthology to celebrate the "versatility and power" of the short story. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tickets to actor Tom Hanks' only event in the UK to promote his new collection of short stories, Uncommon Type (William Heinemann), have sold out in under two hours. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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