What can short stories expect from readers? I expect you to remember that I am not a novel. If I say, ‘the queen died, then the king died of grief’, don’t ask what happened before or after. I shine a light on the particular, an event, a character, a time. The rest remains in the…
A hybrid conference convened by the University of Warwick and Manchester in partnership with the European Network for Short Fiction Research. We are excited to announce this call for papers on Ecological Futurity in ShortFiction. We welcome papers that consider the ways in which short fiction envisions radical alternative futures to a world threatened by…
Call for Papers EVENT: 6th Annual GOTH Symposium CFP DEADLINE: 12 January 2026 EVENT DATE: Friday 15 May 2026 ORGANIZERS: The Open University Centre for Research into Gender and Otherness in the Humanities GUEST PANEL: The Open University Medieval and Early Modern Research Group TYPE: F2F HOST: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of…
Founding Member of the European Network for Short Fiction Research and Editor of Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, Ailsa Cox, has produced her own Personal Anthology of the short fiction that has helped shape her life as an academic, writer, and reader. A Personal Anthology is curated by Jonathan Gibbs, author of the novels…
The European Network for Short Fiction Research was created as a joint initiative of researchers at Edge Hill University (U.K.) and the CRILA research group (UPRES EA 4639), Université d’Angers, France. Our broad aim is to provide a forum and resources for European-based researchers, and to stimulate further research, both theoretical and practice-based.
1. Can you remember the first short story you ever read? I remember thinking Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was ridiculous. Later I fell in love with short fiction and thought differently about Kafka’s work, considering story but also themes related to society, working life and family. Ideas or moments in reading often inspire my writing. For…