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 ]
A little time alone can go a long way in spurring your creative thinking and strengthening relationships.I recently got back from a week of solitude in a house off Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts. I was there to focus on finishing my book of short stories without distraction, conversations,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Instagram has seen its share of photo essays, profiles and short stories. But no one has used the image-sharing network to publish an entire novel - at least not until Matilda and Harry. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2015-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When sickly Bostonian Edward J. O'Brien put together the first "Best American Short Stories" anthology in 1915, short stories were considered junky pop culture. He was hoping that his project would elevate the short-story form. He had no idea he was launching a series that would last a century... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Buckley has won the £15,000 BBC National Short Story Award for ‘Briar Road’. This evening (6th October) he was presented with the prize of £15,000 by this year’s Chair of Judges Allan Little at a ceremony held in the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London. The news was announced live on BBC... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comma Press is publishing In Another Country: Selected Stories and The Life-Writer by David Constantine to coincide with the release of the film “45 Years”, which is based on Constantine’s short story of the same name. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jojo Moyes was driving her children home from school when she heard a news story on the radio about a young rugby player who had persuaded his parents to take him to Dignitas after several years as a quadriplegic. “I couldn’t understand how any parent would agree to do that and because I was a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Galley Beggar Press is launching a short story competition this weekend. The Norwich-based publisher, which originally published Eimear McBride’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction winner A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, said the competition built on the success of its... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson is to publish Gillian Flynn’s short story The Grownup as a standalone book for the first time. The Grownup first appeared under the title What Do You Do? in Rogues (Titan Books), an anthology of short stories edited by George R R Martin and Gardner Dozois. It will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Jane Gardam is to be awarded the Charles-Chichester Award for a Lifetime's Excellence in Short Fiction at a special event held at this year's Charleston Small Wonder Short Story Festival. Gardam, who is the author of short stories as well as novels including the Old Filth trilogy, will... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Welsh writer Carys Davies [pictured] has won the €25,000 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for her collection The Redemption of Galen Pike, published by the independent Salt Publishing. The award is the single most lucrative prize in the world for a collection of short... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zambia's Namwali Serpell has won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing, and is to share her £10,000 prize money with her fellow shortlistees. Serpell won the award with short story "The Sack" from Africa39 (Bloomsbury). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Short stories are gaining ground in the UK, but authors working within the format are finding it more difficult to break into the public consciousness than novelists, writers have told The Bookseller. Awards that cover all forms of fiction such as The Folio Prize, won in 2014 by George... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Brazil this past April and May, 17.34% of all books sold were coloring books — a genre which has dominated the bestseller lists for months. The post The Coloring Book Phenomenon Takes Over Brazil appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent's Tail has signed two books from Orange Prize-winner Valerie Martin, a novel and a collection of short stories. Commissioning editor Rebecca Gray signed UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Peter Straus at RCW, on behalf of Molly Friedrich at the Friedrich Agency. Short... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired a book of short stories by Daisy Johnson at auction. Editorial director Alex Bowler signed UK and Commonwealth rights to two books by Johnson from Jack Ramm at Eve White Literary Agency. Johnson is a 24-year-old prizewinning graduate of Oxford University’s Fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Women buy two-thirds of books sold but magazine reviews are centred on male authors and critics – though picture is beginning to changeThe continuing bias towards men in the British and American literary establishment has been confirmed by a study released on Tuesday.Vida, a US organisation... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood's first stand-alone novel in 15 years will be published in September, alongside a new collection of short stories. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Perennially popular authors such as Allan Ahlberg and multi-authored series such as Rainbow Magic top the charts of children’s books sold to libraries, according to Peters Books & Furniture. The library supplier revealed exclusive sales data to The Bookseller, which showed that the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph will publish a new book by Jojo Moyes this autumn, a sequel to her novel Me Before You. After You, which will be published in ebook and hardback on 24th September, will pick up the story of Lou and her family, and the Traynors. UK and Commonwealth rights were signed from Sheila... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Catherine Aird has been awarded the Crime Writer’s Association Diamond Dagger award. The Diamond Dagger winner is chosen by the CWA committee from a shortlist of writers judged worthy by their peers. Shortlisted authors must have sustained excellence in their careers and made a significant... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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