Tuesday 15 October 2013

Why 2013 is a great year to be a Short Story Writer

Well, the first reason of course is because a woman short story writer has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. That should perk up any short story writer's day. This week I've been rereading Alice Munro with delight. 'Dimensions' in a 2006 edition of The New Yorker is still clouding my head. Have any favourites?

I admire her composure, her slow strength and welling situations. The mole 'riding on a woman's cheek', and Munro's unflustered talk about worrying - through the writing of her first five books - that she unless she wrote a novel she would not be taken seriously. How seriously are we taking her now? This private and unassuming 82-year-old who swore earlier this year she would retire from writing, only to receive this glittering recognition of her mastery of her craft - the art of the short story.

For me this is just thrilling.

Also this week this year's super-talented but oh-so-modest BBC Short Story Award winner Sarah Hall spoke out in The Guardian. First of all this statement should make all of wonder if we even have a clue about short story writing: It's taken me 15 years to feel I might be able to write and publish short stories, and for the assiduous checks of the industry to allow some through. I can count on one hand the number I have written that I feel approach success - that's fewer than the number included in my first collection.

What?! The woman has written a prize-winning book which will bowl you over with sensory imagery, lingering tales and masterful language (The Beautiful Indifference) and she doesn't think she knows how to put a short story together??

The rest of us should collectively howl.

Another insightly quote from this week's article: Having judged a few competitions, it's clear that novelists are often the laziest short story writers. The number of chapters of novels submitted for such prizes is staggering and, frankly, insulting. A piece of prose extracted from a longer piece of fiction rarely qualifies as a sort story - gorgeously stylistic and dramatic though those passages may be.

Or: The short story is as much the verbose cousin of the poem as it is the reticient cousin of the novel. It would be a sad thing to corral writers in separate literary pens, and not consider them versatile. But crossing over is not always easy.

And: Shorts stories are often strong meat (from the writer of the pungent story, 'Butcher's Perfume'). Reading them, even listening to them, can be challenging, by which I do not mean hard work, simply that a certain amount of nerve and maturity is required. Often the experience is exquisitely unsettling; one might feel like a voyeur suddenly looming at the window of an intimate scene... Mostly there is no explanatory narrative ramp or roof, there are no stabilisers giving support over scary subject matter - sex and death, classically - and there are no solvent, tonic or consoling endings...


And now from this modest short story writer, who will from now on claim to know nothing about this tricky form, a short story from Pelt selected by Bookanista magazine, called 'Nathalie'. I'm feeling out of place on the same page as these two ladies, but here's a piece their fiction editor fell for.

8 comments:

  1. Great post Catherine. I totally agree with Hall's argument that "The number of chapters of novels submitted for such prizes is staggering and, frankly, insulting." I used to quite often read stories in The New Yorker - and read Dimensions there - but so often I discovered the "stories" were more like "excerpts". Often they were well chosen and maybe some had been reworked a little to make them a short story but I did feel insulted, particularly when I didn't know. Should I care? I'm still not sure, but somehow I did. And congratulations re Nathalie ... but we'll talk about that later.

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    1. I wish I could subscribe to The New Yorker! I just love the level of short story passion - although there are so many other vigorously followed reviews to be read. I loved Kevin Barry's 'Fjord of Killary' and Cate Kennedy's 'Cold Snap' and have had a couple of pieces rejected there! One does dream...

      I think you should care about an excerpt being passed off as a short story. I didn't realise it was so widespread. The two things start from completely different premises and have wildly different aims. And I do think it is an insult to a short story writer who knows the ropes and works hard at their craft.
      Thanks re 'Nathalie'. There is also a great article on Eleanor Catton in the issue.

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  2. I'm so thrilled for my fellow Canadian!

    Guess what arrived in the post yesterday... Pelt! It's on my bedside table, waiting (except last night I lay down with my daughter and fell asleep there.....) May have to read Nathalie first. XO

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    1. I thought of you and Bobbi when the announcement was made. I bet it makes you feel proud! I just love her in interviews as well.

      Do enjoy Pelt! And how many nights have I fallen asleep next to smaller tribe members.. my reading time disappeared! xxcat

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  3. I agree, short stories are starting once again to get the recognition they deserve. While I'm thrilled Munro won this honor, I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of her work. I've enjoyed the short stories of some of her Nobel prize competitors more--Atwood and Oates. That said, I cannot deny her craftsmanship.

    Thank you for introducing me to Sarah Hall's work. I'll be looking to read more about her soon. And now I'm off to check out your story in Bookanista. Congrats!

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    1. Thanks for dropping by Deborah and I do hope you enjoy 'Nathalie'. I haven't read a lot of Munro but have deeply enjoyed the work I have read. I also loved Oates's books for a long while and then somehow tapered off. Let me know what you think of Sarah Hall's work. I've just finished a great collection by another English writer, Tom Vowler. Best, cat

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  4. "Nathalie"'s a brilliantly evoked piece, Catherine, demonstrating your skill at weaving a taut and engaging narrative - even filth sparkles in your stories ("magma"!) xxx

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    1. Thanks Rae so glad you liked. This story sort of kills me - I don't know about you but once it's edited I steer clear of my work. I read somewhere today, Writing is Bleeding. Well it's bl**** hard work xx

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