Finding a Happy Place: Contented Characters
Tess St Clair-Ford asks whether happy characters can be interesting, and if the lack of conflict in contentment makes them off-limits for the short story writer.
The Journey
Mike Smith takes us on a journey to explore the process of writing.
Raymond Carver’s ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’
Will Bowerman continues the exploration into the work of Raymond Carver and the illusion of the final version…
Author Profile – Erskine Caldwell
By his death in 1987, Erskine Caldwell had published twenty-five novels, nearly one-hundred-and-fifty short stories and twelve volumes of non-fiction. Ellie Piddington looks at why his work is often excluded from the Southern literary canon.
We Recommend – Pulse
Soumya Bhattacharya reviews Julian Barnes’s long-awaited third story collection, PULSE, and finds it beating with the rhythms of life.
Telling Tales by Pauline Masurel
Performing live isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but if you write fiction for publication then sooner or later you are likely to be invited to give a reading and you want to make sure that you can do your stories justice.
Annie Proulx’s Prairie Tales
Proulx’s narrative constructions display a unique mode of seeing and writing the world. The stories in Close Range contain some of those shimmering literary moments I have ingested and carry round with me as vividly as if I were a personal witness to them.
Author Profile – Annie Proulx
Her love of the short form derives from her delight in the weight of every word and the way the expression of big ideas is possible in a small space. For this reason, Proulx believes that new writers should ‘cut their teeth’ with novel writing before attempting the complexities of the short story form.
Classic Openings
Disclaimer: Some, all or none of the below may or may not be fact or fiction. Or both. Phil Latham takes no responsibility for anyone believing what he says to be true or helpful or entertaining. Ever. No dead people were excavated during the creation of this blog.
Choosing Titles that Resonate
Mike Smith ponders the troublesome issue of titles and considers the multiple roles they have to play within a story.