Book Reviews Photo by andy lapham / Flickr Whether he is recounting his nighttime drive with a late colleague and poet around the beltway of the pulsing and vibrant São Paulo—a city so full of people and culture that it seems to have its own gravitational pull—in the form of a mournful elegy, characterized by piercing prose and sorrowful nostalgia about their time teaching together; or essaying about his days abroad in Cameroon as a young, twinkly eyed bachelor, chancing upon the opportunity to interview the renowned René Philombe, “one of the most influential personalities in the new wave of creative writing in Cameroon” (Cameroon Tribune); or, after spending a week with his sweet, innocent prospective playwright of a nephew (“See more glass, cries little Sybil”), lamenting his inability to marry or set down roots in a Parisian penthouse high above the skyline; or creating his own fiction while drawing from his myriad of experiences around the planet or recounting his travel to the places in which his favorite pieces of literature were set or composed—a few of these being the ancient Carthage (modern-day Tunis) of Flaubert’s 1862 historical novel Salammbô; Buenos Aires, the proverbial cradle of the Argentine literary giant Jorge Luis Borges; or Ho Chi Minh City, home of Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War, arguably the most transformative author of postwar Vietnam—Peter LaSalle, in The World Is a Book, Indeed (LSU Press, 2020),... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-11 20:56:08 UTC ]
Children’s author who devised the adventures of the Pig family and illustrated stories including Dick King-Smith’s The Sheep-PigThe writer and illustrator Mary Rayner, who has died aged 89, was best known for her picture books about Mr and Mrs Pig, and the escapades of their 10 piglets. In... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-03-23 16:59:39 UTC ]
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Winners of the 74th Annual Christopher Awards, which recognize books for adults and young people that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit," include ‘Wild Ride’ by Hayley Arceneaux’s (Convergent) and other books published by religion houses. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ is one of the few short stories of the last half-century or so which can truly be called a modern myth. Indeed, Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), the story’s author, called her 1973 tale a ‘psychomyth’, inspired […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-03-21 15:00:42 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) In a short life beset by ill health, the American writer Flannery O’Connor (1925-64) wrote two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960). But it is for her short stories, many of which were collected in just two volumes, that […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-03-14 18:00:54 UTC ]
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These linked short stories are a great way to discover an author's style, and a thrill for folks who love a good Easter egg. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-13 10:33:00 UTC ]
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If you want a little shot of sadness, here are some of the best sad short stories to get the emotions flowing in no time! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-08 11:36:00 UTC ]
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If the literary landscape of the early twentieth century, at least when it comes to short stories, is dominated by Anglophone writers like Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf, then the mid-twentieth century arguably belongs to the Latin American writers who helped to move the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-03-05 18:00:38 UTC ]
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I don’t know if we deserve Rebecca Makkai, but we certainly need her. The author of four novels and a short story collection, she’s been bringing range, depth, and humor to the literary world for at least fifteen years. She’s a regular among the pages of Best American Short Stories and was a... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Twenty stories written under a pseudonym and never before attributed to Pratchett, who died in 2015, will be released this year by TransworldA collection of newly rediscovered short stories by Terry Pratchett, originally written under a pseudonym, are to be published later this year.The 20 tales... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-27 14:52:08 UTC ]
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I'm recommending eight Peruvian books in translation, from surrealist short stories to creative memoir to bloody historical fiction. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-02-22 11:33:00 UTC ]
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‘A White Heron’ is one of the best-known short stories by the American writer Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909). Published in 1886 in the collection A White Heron and Other Stories, the story is about a young girl who is approached by a hunter who offers her money if she will […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-02-08 18:00:40 UTC ]
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‘Women’ is a 1970 poem by Alice Walker (born 1944), one of the best-known African American writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Although she is probably most famous for her 1982 novel The Color Purple, Walker has written short stories and numerous other novels. She also started […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-02-08 15:00:50 UTC ]
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‘A Rose for Emily’ is one of the most widely studied American short stories of the twentieth century, but the subtle narrative style and William Faulkner’s use of symbolism are often difficult to interpret. Starting with the ‘rose’ in the story’s title, the text is rich with symbols whose... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-02-03 18:00:07 UTC ]
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OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s AI chatbot is so good, too many people are using it, crushing its servers. So the company is debuting a paid ChatGPT Plus service, which will launch in the coming weeks. ChatGPT will cost $20 per month, but don’t despair. OpenAI says that it still plans to offer a... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-02-01 21:57:26 UTC ]
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‘Fish Cheeks’ is a short autobiographical narrative by the American writer Amy Tan (born 1952). Tan is probably best-known for The Joy Luck Club, her 1989 novel containing a series of interwoven short stories told by a number of Chinese-American women who are members of the titular club; but... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-01-29 15:00:27 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. William Trevor famously described the short story as “the art of the glimpse,” and compression is generally a virtue. But the most engaging and compelling short stories and novels are not necessarily the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-27 09:52:28 UTC ]
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Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three books of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award;... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-24 09:53:24 UTC ]
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‘Everyday Use’ is one of the most popular and widely studied short stories by Alice Walker. It was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1973 before being collected in Walker’s short-story collection In Love and Trouble. Walker uses ‘Everyday Use’ to explore different attitudes towards Black... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-01-23 15:00:18 UTC ]
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‘Cathedral’ is perhaps the most widely studied of all the short stories of Raymond Carver (1938-88). The story is narrated by a man whose wife has invited her friend, a blind man named Robert, to come and stay with them. Although he is initially uncomfortable and even scathing about their […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-01-22 15:00:57 UTC ]
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Having written and taught short stories for many years, I’ve become increasingly interested in writers who are pushing the edge of how “story” is defined. While “flash fiction” and “micro fiction” are buzzy terms, writing extremely short pieces is nothing new—as I tell my students, Poe did it,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-20 09:53:22 UTC ]
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