Book Reviews Indrajit Bose The author at the Zakir Hussain Delhi College during the Bengali Literary Festival 2018 / Photo courtesy of bitanchakraborty.com Simplicity and quiet elegance never fail to impress us. The effect of a good short story often is like a fugue or an adagio in a musical composition, creating impressions fugitifs, in the best manner of the impressionists, sketching in a mood or elaborating on a motif or theme. Bitan Chakraborty’s The Mark (Shambhabi Imprint, 2020) is unquestionably a collection of short stories revolving around the everyday lives of ordinary characters that leaves an impression of serious engagement with the contemporary Indian milieu and is also aesthetically pleasing. Chakraborty is already an established author of the novel; his foray into the short story adds a further dimension to his existing repertoire. A writer must “convincingly create an illusory world if he is to captivate his readers,” Chakraborty has said, and he appears to have lived up to his aesthetic or writerly principles in The Mark. Peripheral and marginal lives lived by characters grappling with the challenging socioeconomic realities of our times, mediated with narratorial control and poise—these are what make the stories in The Mark a testament to the craft of a storyteller and short fiction writer par excellence. The stories in the collection revolve around everyday life and broad human themes—the despair and... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-04-21 13:18:37 UTC ]
The shortlist for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today at the El-Hakawati Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The IPAF - often referred to as the ‘Arabic Booker’ - is an annual literary prize for prose fiction, which encourages the readership of... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-05 16:33:45 UTC ]
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David Walliams’ next publication, a funny story entitled Fing, "dovetails seamlessly" with his short stories and middle-grade novels, according to his publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of the Oscar-nominated film “45 Years” David Constantine has signed a deal for a collection of short stories, The Dressing-up Box, with Comma Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Each month in 2018, Future Tense Fiction—a series of short stories from Future Tense and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives—will publish a story on a theme. The theme for October–December 2018: Work. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2018-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daunt Books, Waterstones and Foyles are raising money for The Passage, a charity that supports people who are homeless, by selling a book of short stories by AS Byatt, Lennie James and Michael Morpurgo. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thirty-six short stories were submitted for the first ever FutureBook speculative fiction competition run with digital reading platform the Pigeonhole. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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He has charmed Elton John, angered Paul McCartney – and horrified Yoko Ono. What will he uncover about the ‘murky’ death of Jimi Hendrix? The great rock writer reveals the pain – and pleasure – of chasing starsSlowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton is my eighth rock biography since Shout!... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Saqi Books is publishing a newly discovered collection of short stories by the late author Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Orwell Foundation will next month launch a prize to celebrate novels or short stories that illuminate social and political themes through the art of narrative. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year, nine months after Hurricane Irma tore through the Caribbean, I traveled from my home in North Carolina to Anguilla to teach writing workshops to children and adults as part of a literary festival. As a prompt, I asked them to describe what they could not forget about the storm. When... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber Children’s Books has acquired a collection of short stories, set in World War II, by Emma Carroll. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As well as slashing fees for short stories, the magazine has demanded fiction writers waive all rights to their workThe new issue of the Woman’s Weekly fiction special is out now, promising its readers short stories from writers who “never fail to come up with new twists and turns and unexpected... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-12 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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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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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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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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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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