Complete fiction: why 'the short story renaissance' is a myth

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 ]

Other news stories related to: "Complete fiction: why 'the short story renaissance' is a myth"


A Summary and Analysis of Sandra Cisneros’ ‘Mexican Movies’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Mexican Movies’ is a short story from Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, a 1991 collection of short stories by the American writer Sandra Cisneros (born 1954). In the story, a young Chicana girl describes going to her local movie theatre to... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-07-03 14:00:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this


15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer

Small presses have been publishing excellent work by writers who you may not know (yet). From compelling short stories to heart-wrenching novels, these books will take you on a journey across states and countries, into the past or to the future, as well as deep into the minds of richly-drawn... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lorrie Moore Will Not Confess

In a literary culture obsessed with self-disclosure, her brilliant short stories — and, now, a new novel — have always been about art, not autobiography. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-06-17 14:55:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Turning Small Rebellions Into a Large Literary Revolution

Kenan Orhan’s debut, I Am My Country, feels like much more than just a book of imaginative short stories set in and around the author’s ancestral homeland of Turkey. The powerful collection could be said to comprise a series of real “small rebellions” — enacted by its characters, prose, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-13 11:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Book That Crowned Stephen King Is Now a Movie. It’s Still Terrifying.

“The Boogeyman” is just one of the short stories in the 1978 collection that cemented Stephen King’s status as the master of horror. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2023-06-01 18:18:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this


There’s More Than One Kind of Loneliness

A profound and deeply funny examination of loneliness in many of its forms—romantic, familial, artistic—Courtney Sender’s book, In Other Lifetimes All I’ve Lost Comes Back to Me, explores feminist millennial rage and the ways the trauma of the Holocaust has been passed-down through Jewish... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


20 Must-Read Short Stories on Audio

These must-read short stories on audio will help you break out of reading slumps and give you a taste of an author's style, like Some People Have Real Problems by Brit Bennett. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-05-17 10:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Here are the guest editors (and covers!) for the Best American Series 2023.

Do you like the Best American series? Of course you do! Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, science and nature writing, to food writing. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-16 15:00:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Best Short Stories about Art and Artists

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What are the best short stories about painters, artists, and the world of art? From Gothic pioneers like Edgar Allan Poe to realist writers like Edith Wharton, masters of the short story have often touched upon the subject of art and painting, using... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-05-10 14:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Best Coming-of-Age Stories about Adolescence

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Many notable short stories focus on the rough passage from childhood to adulthood. Of course, the transition from ‘child’ to ‘adult’ does not happen overnight, and is not the result of a single epiphany of crucial moment, but writers of short fiction... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-05-01 17:00:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Long Rain’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Long Rain’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). Although Bradbury preferred to describe himself as a ‘fantasy’ writer, this story is most accurately categorised as... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-28 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Best Short Stories about Marriage

Marriage is a key theme in literature, of course: a fact which need hardly surprise us when we reflect that many people spend the majority of their lives married to somebody else. Marriage also touches upon other prominent themes, including love, commitment, having children, lust, conflict, and... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-26 14:00:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Meaning of ‘Lottery in June, Corn be Heavy Soon’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ This line is a quotation from one of the most disturbing short stories of the entire twentieth century; but what does it mean? Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’, published in the New Yorker in 1948, has been read […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-25 17:00:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jamil Jan Kochai Wins $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize

Jamil Jan Kochai wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize for his short stories focused on the absurdity and violence Afghans have endured. The post Jamil Jan Kochai Wins $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-04-20 08:22:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Best Short Stories about Religion

Religion is an important feature of many people’s lives, so it shouldn’t surprise us that many writers of short stories have written about religion from various perspectives: the power of superstitious belief, the importance of religious conversion, the cultural role of Christianity, and many... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-19 14:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lydia Davis refuses to sell her next book on Amazon

The garlanded short story author will release her next collection solely in bookshops and select independent online outlets to coincide with Bookshop DayPrize-winning author Lydia Davis’ new collection of short stories will not be sold on Amazon, with the author saying she does not “believe... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-19 10:05:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this


UK publishing industry reports record-breaking year in 2022

There were 669m physical books sold in the UK last year, according to new figures from the Publishers AssociationThe UK publishing industry had a “record-breaking year” in 2022, with a total income of £6.9bn.A Year in Publishing, a look at the state of the book market by trade body the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-17 11:26:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Sub-Saharan Africa Literature and Publishing Sector Report

Sub-Saharan Africa Literature and Publishing Sector Report As we look to build on our programmes with the literature and publishing sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, the British Council has commissioned a scoping report into the trade publishing and literature sectors across nine countries in which... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2023-04-17 10:35:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of Sandra Cisneros’ ‘My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn’

‘My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn’ is the opening story in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, a 1991 collection of short stories by the American writer Sandra Cisneros (born 1954). In the story, a young girl describes her friendship with a girl named Lucy, and it emerges that […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-13 14:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Lesson for Dr. Freud: Dominique Fabre’s Psychoanalysis of the Everyday and Everyman, by Alice-Catherine Carls

A Lesson for Dr. Freud: Dominique Fabre’s Psychoanalysis of the Everyday and Everyman, by Alice-Catherine Carls Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 04/10/2023 - 15:41 And these things, that live by going away, know that you praise them;... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-04-10 20:41:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this