January 2018 – ENSFR

The European Network for Short Fiction Research was established in 2013 with the aim of fostering and promoting the study of short fiction in European universities and in interaction with short fiction writers. After an inaugural meeting early in 2014, the ENSFR has organized annual conferences as well as sponsored several other study days and events. This website aims to be an interactive platform for sharing research, expertise, ideas and information about short fiction in its diversity of linguistic traditions and forms.

22 January 2018

New publication on George Saunders’ Pastoralia

George Saunders’ Pastoralia: Bookmarked , by Charles Holdefer – New York: Ig Publishing (ISBN-13: 978-1632460639; $14.95 paperback; £10.89 ; €13.11)
George Saunders’ 2000 short story collection, Pastoralia, is an exaggerated and darkly humorous satire on American life at the turn of the twenty-first century, merging the spirit of James Thurber with the world of the Simpsons. In his entry in Ig’s acclaimed Bookmarked series, award-winning author Charles Holdefer addresses how this collection, and the writing of Saunders, influenced his journey as an author.

The European Network for Short Fiction Research was created as a joint initiative of researchers at Edge Hill University (U.K.), the Université d’Angers (France) and the University of Leuven (Belgium). We have now been joined by many other colleagues from all over Europe. Our broad aim is to foster and promote research on short fiction across different countries and institutions.

We aim to provide a forum and resources for European-based researchers into the practice, criticism and transmission of short fiction in its diversity of forms and to facilitate collaboration in both critical and practice-led research. We hold annual conferences on short fiction, hosted in different universities across Europe, and we facilitate and support many other conferences, workshops and seminars in the broad field of short fiction studies.