Morphologies

Morphologies

by Ramsey CampbellBrian Aldiss Frank Cottrell Boyce and others
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 30/01/2014

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SARA MAITLAND on NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

SEAN O'BRIEN on EDGAR ALLAN POE

JANE ROGERS on FYODOR DOSTOYEYSKY

BRIAN ALDISS on THOMAS HARDY

MARTIN EDWARDS on ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE on ANTON CHEKHOV

ADAM ROBERTS on RUDYARD KIPLING

STEPHEN BAXTER on H.G. WELLS

STUART EVERS on SHERWOOD ANDERSON

ALI SMITH on JAMES JOYCE

TOBY LITT on FRANZ KAFKA

DAVID CONSTANTINE on D.H. LAWRENCE

ALISON MACLEOD on KATHERINE MANSFIELD

RAMSEY CAMPBELL on H.P. LOVECRAFT

SIMON VAN BOOY on F. SCOTT FITZGERALD


What makes for a good short story?


Being short, you might think the story's structure would yield an answer to this question more readily than, say, the novel. But for as long as the short story has been around, arguments have raged as to what it should and shouldn't be made up of, what it should and shouldn't do. Here ,15 leading contemporary practitioners offer structural appreciations of past masters of the form as well as their own perspectives on what the short story does so well.

The best short stories don't have closure, argues one contributor, 'because life doesn't have closure'; 'plot must be written with the denouement constantly in view,' quotes another. Covering a century of writing that arguably saw all the major short forms emerge, from Hawthorne's 'Twice Told Tales' to Kafka's modernist nightmares, these essays offer new and unique inroads into classic texts, both for the literature student and aspiring writer.

ISBN:
1230000214183
1230000214183
Category:
Literary essays
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
30-01-2014
Language:
English
Publisher:
Comma Press
Ramsey Campbell

The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as "Britain's most respected living horror writer". He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature.

Brian Aldiss

Author of British Science Fiction classics Non-stop, Hothouse and Greybeard, Aldiss’s writing spanned genres and generations, bridging the gap between classic ‘science fiction’ and contemporary literature with his Helliconia Trilogy and Thomas Squire Quartet. Aldiss was also an entertaining memoirist, notably basing his Horatio Stubbs saga on his wartime adventures in Burma and the Far East, as well as the autobiography The Twinkling of an Eye. A friend and drinking companion of Kingsley Amis and correspondent with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Aldiss was a founding member of the Groucho Club in London and a judge on the 1981 Booker Prize.

Awarded the Hugo Award for Science Fiction in 1962 and the Nebula Award in 1965, Aldiss’s writings were well received by the critics and earned a strong following in the United States and in Britain as well as being widely translated into foreign languages. In later years his cultured world view and enduring curiosity found expression in the novels Harm and The Finches of Mars, dealing with the contradictions of the war against terror and the logistical difficulties of accommodating different terrestrial belief systems in space. Among his considerable body of short fiction are the ‘Supertoys’ stories, adapted for film as A.I., on which Aldiss collaborated with Stanley Kubrick for over a decade before its completion by Steven Spielberg. His novel Frankenstein Unbound was made for screen by Roger Corman.

In 2000 Brian Aldiss was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Reading and received the title of Grandmaster from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen for services to Literature with the O.B.E. in the 2005 Birthday Honours list. He died in August 2017, aged 92.

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a successful British screenwriter whose film credits include Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie and 24 Hour Party People. Millions, his debut chidlren's novel, won the 2004 Carnegie Medal and was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award.

His second novel, Framed, was shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Children's Fiction Award and has also been shortlisted for the 2005 Carnegie Medal. His third novel, Cosmic, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

Frank has also written a sensational sequel to the much-loved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the heartwarming Runaway Robot.

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards was born in Knutsford, Cheshire. He read law at Balliol College, Oxford and trained as a solicitor. He is the author of the legal mysteries featuring Harry Devlin adnd writes the popular crime series set in the Lake District. He is also a critic and has edited various short story collections and writes The Martin Edward's Column on BookNoir.

Ali Smith

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962.

She is the author of Free Love and Other Stories, Like, Other Stories and Other Stories, Hotel World, The Whole Story and Other Stories, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy, The First Person and Other Stories, There but for the, Artful, How to be Both, and Public Library and other stories.

Hotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize and The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Orange Prize. How to be Both won the Baileys Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Folio Prize.

Autumn was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

Jane Rogers

Jane Rogers has written six novels including Mr Wroe's Virgins (dramatised as an award-winning television serial) and Promised Lands, which won the Writers' Guild Best Novel Award 1996. She also writes for TV and radio, and teaches at Sheffield Hallam University.

Adam Roberts

Adam regularly competes against best barbecue teams on the Barbeques Galore Championship circuit and has picked up a handful of trophies for various categories including a Reserve Grand Championship trophy in 2017.

With many years of girth-building food experiences or tours of places including the United States, Caribbean, Mexico, South Pacific, Arabian Desert (UAE), Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey Adam has picked up some of the best flavor combinations and cooking techniques and lays them down in 'Ribs' for all to enjoy.

Having owned his own mobile food trailer called Yankee Deli, serving American Style Street Food as well as catering functions, food festivals and other events, Adam certainly knows his way around both the indoor and outdoor kitchens.

Sara Maitland

Sara Maitland is the British author of numerous works of fiction, including the Somerset Maugham Award-winning Daughter of Jersualem, and several non-fiction books, including A Book of Silence.

Born in 1950, she studied at Oxford University and lives in Galloway, Scotland. 

Stuart Evers

Stuart Evers’ debut, Ten Stories About Smoking, won the London Book Award in 2011; his highly acclaimed novel, If This is Home, followed in 2012 and his collection Your Father Sends His Love, was shortlisted for the 2016 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

In 2017, Evers won the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award – one of Europe’s richest prizes for a work in progress. His work has appeared in three editions of the Best British Short Stories, as well as Granta, the White Review, Prospect and on Radio 4. Originally from the North West, he lives in London.

Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter is the pre-eminent SF writer of his generation. With Terry Pratchett he has co-authored the Long Earth novels. Published around the world he has also won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. Born in 1957 he has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton. He lives in Northumberland with his wife.

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