Story Features
Short Story features, interviews and articles
Author interview
'I always dreamed of moving away and never coming back'
Don Pollock's debut collection of short stories is named after, and set in, the (real) town of Knockemstiff, Ohio, where Pollock grew up.
Advice
Hard work, persistence, luck ... and a bowl of fruit
Vanessa Gebbie is the author of Words from a Glass Bubble. Here, she offers some thoughts and advice about entering short story competitions.
John Waddington-Feather: an appreciation
William Ruleman, Professor of English at Tennessee Wesleyan College, has contacted Story with a personal appreciation of the short stories of John Waddington-Feather.
Aesthetica magazine
In its five-year history, Aesthetica Magazine has published over 130 short stories and offered exposure to thousands of casual browsers in bookshops around the UK.
Translated fiction
Global stories: women's writing from around the world
Hikayat; Galpa; Povídky; Katha; Scéalta; Dinaane; Qissat; Afsaneh – these evocative words from other languages conjure up images of far-flung countries and cultures.
Translated fiction
Tales from ten cities: short stories in translation
Independent publisher Comma Press has launched a translation imprint dedicated to delivering the best in contemporary short fiction, as part of its ongoing mission to champion the short story as a unique and divergent literary form.
2007 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Stories with eggs: Tessa Hadley and Claire Keegan
Few writers explore the workings of the human heart and the complexities of emotion more deftly than Tessa Hadley and Claire Keegan.
Short story journal
Defining a vision: Birkbeck College's literary magazine
The Mechanics' Institute Review editorial team reflects on the experience of putting together a literary magazine.
2007 Edinburgh International Book Festival
The laureate of small things: Ali Smith on Tove Jansson
Moomins be damned – this lively festival event was all about much-loved Finnish author Tove Jansson’s writing for adults, and no one could have done a better job at singing its praises on a dull wet day in Edinburgh than Ali Smith.
Live literature
A good story and an interval ice cream
Live literature producer Julia Bird explains how she came to put together this autumn's touring performance Tilting the Mirror.
Live literature
Glass eyes and slippery eels - the launch of X-24: unclassified
It’s an old and time-worn phrase, but nothing describes editors Tash Aw and Nii Ayikwei Parkes’s new anthology of stories so much, nor so well, as ‘labour of love’.
Author interview
'Wackjob stories I thought no one would want to read'
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell’s debut collection of short stories, is certainly the most arresting title of the year so far, but luckily the content more than fulfils the promise of the name. St. Lucy’s is crazy but thoughtful, absurd yet disarmingly real.
The story of Seven Days
The aim behind this publication was relatively simple: to provide something for everyone.
Online writing
The Edit Red writing community
Back in 2003, freelance journalist Alan Emmins, literary reviewer Sean Merrigan and creative writing teacher Chris Lee Ramsden started an online literary journal called Spoiled Ink.
Author interview
'I’m definitely the kind of guy who sleeps next to those who’ll push him out of bed.'
Israeli writer Etgar Keret has written two collections of short stories, both of which have been praised for their wit and imagination. Here he talks about his new collection, Missing Kissinger, a heady mix of the surreal, the violent and the compassionate.
Live literature
Love, Hate and Race in the UK
Cocooned in the faded splendour of London’s Café de Paris, actors Ian Hart, Lucy Brown, Ray Panthaki and Richard Schiff read stories by (respectively) Adam Marek, Rose Tremain, Gautam Malkani and Michel Faber.
Short stories for football fans
It's a grand old team to write for
Paul Cuddihy, the editor of Celtic Football Club's official weekly magazine, explains why for the last four years he has published short stories by some of Scotland's finest established and up-and-coming writers.
Villa Gillet short story conference, Lyon, France
Le choix des histoires courtes
The short story, an already popular and widespread literary genre in anglophone countries, is becomingly increasingly in vogue among French writers. Why?
Author interview
Black juice and good deaths
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan is an extraordinary and hard-to-pigeonhole collection of short stories set in worlds that are similar but subtly different to our own. Here, she talks about her writing and inspirations.
Author interview
The dignity of rarity
Thomas McGuane, novelist and author of the short story collection Gallatin Canyon, talks about the Midwest and the state of modern American fiction.
Glasgow 2020
Why stories make the world go round
"The aim was nothing less than to contribute to the reimagining of a city through the stories people tell about it."
Gerry Hassan, Head of Demos Scotland 2020, explains how the ambitious Glasgow 2020 project came about.
Small Wonder Short Story Festival
Talent spotting: the Small Wonder short story slam
Sophie Lewis, slam virgin, throws herself in at the deep end
2006 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Town mouse and country mouse
James Smith discovers that although Edgardo Cozarinsky and Per Petterson may never be able to live together, they share common ground when it comes to writing.
2006 Edinburgh International Book Festival
Roundabouts and sofas
Bernard MacLaverty weaved a magic spell at Edinburgh. James Smith was there.
2006 Edinburgh International Book Festival
James Lasdun interview
"The short story should be the natural form for our time-poor, hardworking times." Sophie Lewis of Prospect Magazine talks to James Lasdun, winner of the inaugural National Short Story Prize.
Scotsman & Orange Short Story Award
Russian dolls
Clio Gray obsessively files away facts, then turns them into prize-winning fiction. David Robinson on the emerging writer who's won the Scotsman & Orange Short Story Award
2006 Edinburgh International Book Festival
The thoughts of small men
Only when he read the reviews of his new book did Adam Thorpe realise that all the stories in the collection were about so-called small men and their struggles with the modern world. James Smith reports on a lively morning with the author in Edinburgh.
Small Wonder Short Story Festival
Limeys v Yanks: Short Stories and the Great Atlantic Divide
Is America the birthplace of the short story, and are American stories still the best in the world? Do British stories still come second or are they starting to match up to their heavyweight rivals? Sophie Lewis summarises a lively debate
Sign-up for our e-newsletter find out more
Free short stories by the best writers for you to download find out more
BBC National Short Story Award find out more
all content © Booktrust 2006-8 contact us