Event: Charles E. May’s Short Story Theories’ 50th Anniversary Roundtable

Join us as we honour the enduring legacy of Charles E. May’s Short Story Theories (1976), a landmark work that reshaped how we read, teach, and think about short fiction. This special event marks the 50th anniversary of its publication; a moment to reflect on its impact and celebrate the vibrant community of short story scholars, writers, and readers it continues to inspire.

Speakers
Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany)
Michael Collins (King’s College London, UK)
Ailsa Cox (Edge Hill University, UK)
Andrea Marzocchi (University of Surrey, UK)

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Michael Basseler is Academic Manager at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. He has published widely on the (American) short story and short story theory, including his monograph An Organon of Life Knowledge: Genres and Functions of the Short Story in North America (2019), A History of the American Short Story (2011, ed. with Ansgar Nünning) as well as a book chapter on “Current Approaches to the American Short Story” (in Handbook of the American Short Story, 2022, eds. Erik Redling and Oliver Scheiding). Michael is a founding steering committee member of the European Network for Short Fiction Research.

Michael Collins is a Reader in American Studies at KCL and Chair of the British Association for American Studies. He is the author of two monographs, The Drama of the American Short Story  and Exoteric Modernisms: Progressive Era Realism and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story (with Gavin Jones). He has published numerous articles in a range of journals, specifically (though not exclusively) focused on short fiction. Most recently, he has been working on topics relating to intelligence testing, The Panama Canal, and the American Civil Service in literature and culture.

Ailsa Cox is the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction. Her books include Alice Munro ;Writing Short Stories ; The Mind’s Eye: Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades with Christine Lorre; and Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books, in collaboration with Tim Struthers, Corinne Bigot and Catherine Sheldrick Ross. She has written extensively on other writers including Katherine Mansfield, Helen Simpson, Daisy Johnson and Jon McGregor, and is principal editor of the peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice. Her own fiction has been widely published, most recently in the mini-collection Precipitation.

Andrea Marzocchi is a PhD candidate in the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey. His research focuses on the aesthetic of the sublime and the functions it performs in realist American short fiction: from opening dimensions of expansiveness to encoding the affects and power dynamics that characterize the contemporary world. Since May 2024, Andrea has been running a podcast dedicated to short fiction. The podcast is entitled A Small, Good Thing after a short story by Raymond Carver and it features interviews with writers, academics, publishers, and short story enthusiasts.