John Burnside wins Edge Hill Prize

The Scottish writer John Burnside has won the 2014 Edge Hill Prize for a published short story collection from the UK or Ireland for his collection, Something Like Happy.  The other four finalists were Bernie McGill,  Jaki McCarrick, David Rose and Rachel Trezise who won the Readers’ Choice prize, judged by creative writing students at Edge Hill.  The judging panel for the main prize was headed up by last year’s winner, Kevin Barry.

http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2014/07/edge-hill-short-story-prize-2014-winner-announced/

CFP: Special issue CJIS: contemporary Irish short story

The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies invites submissions for a special issue on the Contemporary Irish Short Story, guest edited by Michael Kenneally. Essays are invited on all aspects of contemporary Irish short fiction, with special preference to be given to writing published since 2000. Essays exploring individual stories, writers, collections or a particular thematic focus are welcome, and should demonstrate an awareness of recent critical writing on the short story genre. Given the commitment of CJIS to highlight Irish visual, material and spatial cultures, submissions that explore the short story as a material or graphic object or as a precursor to physical manifestations on screen, stage or video, for example, would be especially welcome.

The length should not exceed 5,000 words and should follow the submission guidelines on the CJIS website: www.irishstudies.ca/canadian-journal-of-irish-studies

The deadline for submissions is December 2014 but it is advisable to contact the guest editor beforehand: Michael.Kenneally@concordia.ca

Short Fiction in Theory and Practice 3:2

The new issue of the peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice is devoted to the short story cycle. In the editorial, Elke D’hoker gives a critical overview of different conceptualisations of the short story cycle in different literary traditions. Articles by Raphaël Ingelbien, Jennifer Smith, Rob Luscher, Ailsa Cox, Rachel Lister and An Van Hecke offer original analyses of short story cycles by such writers as LeFanu, Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Byatt, Simpson and many others. The issue also contains an interview with Rachel Cusk, who offers interesting reflections on the short story. For the publisher’s link to the journal, click here.

Special issue on the short story collection

 Interférences Littéraires / Literaire Interferenties: A Multilingual e-Journal of Literary Studies has just published a special issue on the short story collection. It is entitled “Cycles, Recueils, Macrotexts: The  Short Story Collection in Theory and Practice” and is edited by Elke D’hoker and Bart Van den Bossche. It contains articles in English and French and is available on the journal’s website.