It is this element of shock, often the effect of reading short fiction, which accounts for very passionate or hostile responses to the form. A good short story should be a disturbing rather than a comforting experience. A good short story should make you think.
WHAT TO READ
I love reading short fiction, a term which covers both short stories and fantastic tales ? largely because I can read a short story as I read poetry - in one go, without moving from my chair, and because if it is a good story it will give me as much to brood about, even in a short space of time, as a long novel would do. Women writers have always excelled in short fiction.
Think of writers like Katherine Mansfield, Alice Munroe, Lorrie Moore, Carol Shields and there are contemporary British writers whose short fiction is often far stronger, more daring and startling than their novels ? Angela Carter, A.S.Byatt, Rose Tremain, Sara Maitland, Michèle Roberts. But it wouldn?t do to forget the masters! Edgar Allen Poe is the father of the short story. All Conan Doyle?s Sherlock Holmes stories were first published as short fiction in The Strand magazine. Henry James wrote short fiction all his life. Hemingway?s first collection in our time (no capitals!) contains some of his strongest writing. I?m not mad about Raymond Carver, but many other people are - I am very keen on Flannery O?Conner, among the Southern American Writers, and she has written about writing short stories in very compelling and provocative essays.
Some writers compose themed collections of short fiction which offer a particular satisfaction ? Angela Carter?s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a classic of this type. But try more recent work like Kazuo Ishiguro?s Nocturnes: Stories of Music and Nightfall and Michèle Roberts most recent collection Mud: Stories of Love and Sex. Lots of literary magazines include short stories. I subscribe to Granta, and I am just reading a wonderful short story by Leila Aboulela called ?Missing Out?. Don?t miss her collection Coloured Lights.
SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
1.Reader: Always begin with the reader and be a demanding reader. If you are a demanding reader you will demand a lot from your own writing. How do you read a short story? How do you read a novel? Do you find a short story easier to read than a novel? If not, why not?
2.Method: Why are the essential differences in form and method between a short story and a novel? There is not enough space in a short story to develop a character with telling psychological density. The character has to be located in his or her voice, attitudes, possessions.
3.Story: Are there substantial differences between the story of a short story and the story of a novel? Does a short story actually have to have a story? Or a plot? What is the difference?
4.Setting: Setting or location is often crucial in a short story. It will often be the one thing a reader will remember years later when she/he has forgotten the plot and the names of the characters.
5.Length: Is there such a thing as an ideal length for a short story, a novella, or a novel? A good short story is like a good poem- condensed, tightly constructed, any redundant information must be pruned away.
6.Endings: If a story is read at one sitting the reader?s energy and concentration should impel him or her towards the end. Think hard about endings. What works for you as a reader and what doesn?t work? Why is the ending of a piece of short fiction often both crucial and problematic?
7.What are the most common reasons why short stories fail as successful pieces of writing? What makes a really good short story work?
8. Are some subjects more suitable for short stories than full-length novels? And if you are a writer, how do you know?
PATRICIA DUNCKER is the author of five novels, Hallucinating Foucault (1996), winner of the McKitterick Prize and the Dillons First Fiction Award, James Miranda Barry (1999) and The Deadly Space Between (2002). Her fourth novel, Miss Webster and Chérif (Bloomsbury, 2006) was short listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, 2007.
She has published two collections of short fiction, Monsieur Shoushana's Lemon Trees (1997), shortlisted for the Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and Seven Tales of Sex and Death (2003), all of which have been widely translated. Her critical work includes a collection of essays on writing, theory and contemporary literature, Writing on the Wall (2002). Her fifth novel, The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge (Bloomsbury, 2010) is shortlisted for the CWA Golden Dagger Award.
She was Chairman of the Judges (fellow judges Antonia Byatt and Tobias Hill) for the Asham Award for short fiction and judged the new fiction prize organised by New Writing Ventures for Eastern Arts in 2006. For Honno, the Welsh Women?s Press, she has edited three collections of short fiction with Janet Thomas. She is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Manchester
Fee £595 all inclusive for the week in a shared room (Excluding flights)
£150 supplement for single room
£450 for non participating partners
Places are limited Click here to book your place now
