By Lisa Feklistova
Consider the witch. Why did she frighten Europeans, once upon a time?
Journée d’études / Study Day on Short Crime Fiction – 14 October 2022, Université Catholique de Lille
Call for Papers
Modern detective fiction is usually considered to have started with Edgar Allan Poe’s three Dupin short stories and it is certain that the Sherlock Holmes short stories in The Strand magazine brought the new genre to the attention of the world. Other notable writers who helped shape the genre in the early 20th century, including G. K. Chesterton and Melville Davisson Post, stuck to the short form and managed both to innovate and to produce works which are still appreciated today. For Ellery Queen, writing in 1942, it was still possible to state that “the original, the ‘legitimate’ form” of detective fiction “was the short story”[1] and to perceive the detective novel as an inflated short story. According to Catherine Ross Nickerson, “[t]he mechanisms of a detective narrative are more apparent in a short story, since there is less upholstery for hiding the ropes and pulleys. The shorter form also forces writers to make a more clear decision about whether to focus on the puzzle or on the character.”[2]
In Quest of Forgotten Yellow Book Writer Ethel Colburn Mayne
By Elke D’hoker
While early reviews routinely likened her work to that of Henry James, by 1923, Mayne was called ““the only short-story writer capable of succeeding Katherine Mansfield”
Continue reading “In Quest of Forgotten Yellow Book Writer Ethel Colburn Mayne”
Edge Hill Prize shortlist 2021
The annual Edge Hill Prize awards £10,000 to the author of what the judges consider to be the best published short-story collection from the UK or Ireland. This year’s shortlist includes previous winner Kevin Barry, plus four debut authors. It also includes two short story cycles. Full list below:
- Paradise Block by Alice Ash (Serpent’s Tail/Profile);
- That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry (Canongate).
- Lifestyle Choice 10mg by Rosemary Jenkinson (Doire Press);
- The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies by Jo Lloyd (Swift Press);
- Made by Sea and Wood, in Darkness by Alexandros Plasatis (Spuyten Duyvil);
- She-Clown by Hannah Vincent (Myriad Editions).
Small and independent publishers have made a strong showing. There’s a huge amount of variety amongst these collections, ranging from tales of migrant fishermen (Plasatis) to postmodern historical fiction (Lloyd) and a magic realist version of life on a council estate (Ash). The winner will be announced early in 2022 – hopefully at a live event in the UK.
Alice Munro in the Classroom
By Ailsa Cox
Some one said to me the other day, ‘I don’t get Alice Munro.’ It’s okay, I told her. Continue reading “Alice Munro in the Classroom”
CFP: “The Health of the Short Story” – Short Fiction in Theory and Practice
Edge Hill Prize 2020 winner
Shelley Day has been named the winner of the 2020 Edge Hill Prize for her debut collection, What Are You Like. Ruby Cowling won the Readers’ Choice Prize for another debut collection, This Paradise.
JSSE Issue n.72 – Elizabeth Spencer
We are pleased to announce the publication of number 72 of the Journal of the Short Story in English/Cahiers de la nouvelle, devoted to Elizabeth Spencer. This issue is dedicated to our colleagues specialized in American literature, Michel Bandry, Danièle Pitavy-Souques and Claude Maisonnat (who authored one of the articles), but also to Spencer herself, who passed away in December 2019. Two previously unpublished short stories and two interviews are collected in this issue. Three writers have also agreed to share their memories of Spencer.
You will find below the table of contents, as well as links to the websites of the Presses Universitaires de Rennes and OpenEdition, where the beginning of the articles can be accessed.
“Short forms beyond borders” (SFBB): AN ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnerships Project
The “Short stories and short forms” team of the CIRPaLL laboratory has received funding from the Erasmus + Strategic Partnerships program. This European research program aims to promote transnational projects set up by networks of teacher-researchers in Europe in order to develop and share innovative practices in the fields of education, training and youth.
With the “Short Forms Beyond Borders (SFBB)” project, we intend to work collaboratively on short forms as a tool for cultural, educational and social mediation in Europe. The relevance of short forms is becoming more and more visible in today’s society. Brevity is becoming a way of doing things, a question of time and style, indeed of thinking. Examples of short forms include short videos, text messages, short stories, Instagram stories, sound fragments, television series, short speeches, sales pitches, news briefs, slogans etc. Continue reading ““Short forms beyond borders” (SFBB): AN ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnerships Project”
Edge Hill Prize shortlist 2020.
The Edge Hill Prize 2020 for a published short story collection from the UK or Ireland has just been announced. £10,000 will be awarded to the winner in November. The collections are:
- Paris Syndrome by Lucy Sweeney Byrne (Banshee Press)
- This Paradise by Ruby Cowling (Boiler House Press)
- What Are You Like by Shelley Day (Postbox Press)
- Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall (Faber)
- This Way to Departures by Linda Mannheim (Influx Press)