Jules Archer for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer Jules Archer.

What makes a short story great?

For me, a great short story has an instant hook. Whether it’s a character, a sentence, or a plot, something always hooks and draws me in. Usually, if the first sentence makes me keep reading, I know I have a keeper. From there, I just want a well-told story. Killer language. Sparsity. Twisted tales. Humor. Nothing normal is always good. I admire the short story form for getting so much into a cramped space. If you can do it right and freakishly, you have my attention. 

I really am in love with The Paper Bag Princess by Rebecca Jones-Howe at Manarchy.  

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Jules Archer has been published in Metazen, Monkeybicycle, and PANK, among others. And we’re happy to say she has a story forthcoming at Little Fiction. You can follow Jules on twitter here.

Shawn Syms for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer and editor Shawn Syms.

What do you love about reading short stories?

A short story allows you “To see a world in a grain of sand” (Blake). They are at once models of precision and vast psychological landscapes.

What is the best short story you’ve read in the last year, and why?

I’ve read many fantastic short stories in the past year; it’s hard to single one out. Just yesterday, I read a great story by Steven Heighton, from the winter issue of Zoetrope: All Story, called “Who Now Lies Sleeping.” An aging small-town lawyer confronts his lifelong ambivalence about his queer son’s life when the grown man returns home with the ashes of his husband, dead of HIV-related causes. There are so many divides: urban/rural, generational, sexual; conflicts of memory, ambition and conscience. As in Heighton’s other work, so much is happening all at once, even at the sentence level.

Other recent fantastic reads:

Seal by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer 

Thorn-blossoms by Anne Fleming 

Valerie’s Bush by Nancy Jo Cullen 

With Daddy by Allison Baggio 

911 by Russell Wangersky 

The Floating Wife by Cary Fagan 

What makes a short story great?

I like a story that elicits a complicated emotional response. On first reading, you may not be completely sure how you feel or why, but you have definitely been affected by what you read.

Do you have a favorite short story collection? And what makes it your favourite?

Barbara Gowdy sensitively explores the human condition by focusing on the marginalized, the outcast, the unusual, the misunderstood, the possibly horrifying. Buy her collection We So Seldom Look on Love. Read the title story.

I’m also a big fan of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son. The narrative voice is so stark and distinctive. And the book is all about sex and drugs, which I think are some of the most important things to write about of all.

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Shawn Syms is editor of the collection Friend. Follow. Text. #storiesFromLivingOnline, out this fall from Enfield & Wizenty. He returns to Little Fiction this October too.

Thomas Michael Duncan for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer Thomas Michael Duncan.

I was working a dead-end job, one that now appears to be the beginning of a sprawling series of dead-end jobs, spending my half-hour lunch break reading a short story in a Pushcart Prize Anthology. My boss looked up from her microwaved soup to offer me some unwanted conversation during the only time of the day I wasn’t required to listen to her. “I don’t understand the point of short stories,” she said. “What? Did the writer not have enough for a novel?”

I could (and perhaps should) have defended my beloved art form ad nauseum. Instead, I shrugged. I wanted to squash the dialogue and finish reading the story. Besides, I’m much better at expressing myself in writing than in person, and much more forthcoming with my opinion on the internet than face to face.

And here I am. Writing. On the internet.

What is a short story, anyway? A short story is a carefully crafted piece of literature with a fascinating set of distinct characters and a complete narrative arc wrapped up tight in a package of sharp sentences, timely punctuation, and sprinkled with delicious little metaphors. Or not. Maybe it is a blunt, painful reflection of contemporary society presented through a brief dialogue at a train station. Maybe it’s an intimate letter between estranged lovers, one who moved to Kentucky to pursue a professional croquet career, the other a space marine stationed on Mars. Perhaps it features no traditional plot structure and instead follows seven different characters who all happen to come in contact with the same ten dollar bill. There are short stories written in beautiful elaborate language and others told in simple words with a straightforward voice.

One of the great things about reading short stories is that you never know what to expect. The short story as a form is highly receptive to growth and experimentation, both in terms of content and style. For that reason, writing short stories is a great way for authors to find a voice, fine tune an approach, and develop a unique style.

But let’s be clear: my dear boss’s assumption was far from the truth. Short stories are not simply training wheels for would-be novelists. Short stories have a purpose, and that purpose is entertainment—damn good, mind-blowing, face-melting entertainment. Pound-for-pound, word-for-word, minute-for-minute, short stories can go toe-to-toe with any medium (film, television, video games, music, comics, novels) and come out on top.

The best are those that I read in less than an hour yet stay on my mind for weeks, months, even years. Below are some of my favorite stories, ones that have stuck with me for a long time. 

All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury

The Big Hoo-Ha, by Maren Michel

The Eye, by Mike Meginnis

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Thomas Michael Duncan lives with his fiance in Liverpool, NY. He writes fact, fiction, and the occasional bit of nonsense. Pick Mike’s brain on twitter and keep an eye out for his story A Proper Burial, forthcoming from Little Fiction.

Trevor Corkum for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer Trevor Corkum.

What makes a short story great?
For me, what makes a short story great is the element of emotional risk, feeling a sense of urgency or that something is at stake at the moment we enter the story. I want the question “why now? why is this story being told” to be answered in a way that’s emotionally truthful and that provides some insight into who we are and the intricate possibilities of the world. It can be a dramatic or a quiet insight, but it should be earned and feel inevitable. A voice I can trust in and invest in as a reader (note: different from trusting the narrator themselves) is usually the handiest vehicle for experiencing the angst or exhilaration or regret a given story might offer or achieve. 
What is the best short story you’ve read in the past year? And why?
One of my favourite stories of the past year was Kris Bertin’s “Your #1 Killer and Extra Hands”, originally published in The Malahat Review and a deserving winner of the Jack Hodgins Founders Award. This story has it all and then some - a pitch-perfect voice shot through with compassion, fear, guilt, and other complications of the human kind; exceptional pacing; and a plot that unpacks itself skillfully and truthfully. The story is told from the point of view of a mother concerned for the safety of her son. It’s raw. It’s real. And while it’s technically superb, there’s an element of risk and truth in every line. It’s not concerned with dazzling you as a reader or trying to play tricks or prove a point. It’s a story that engages with itself, with life, with the marrow and guts of what’s inside our hearts.
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Trevor Corkum is currently working on a novel and a collection of short fiction. You can download his latest Little Fiction story In Memoriam here. Trevor’s work also appeared in our Listerature Vol. 2 collection. 

Will Johnson for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer Will Johnson.

The best story I’ve read in a long while was published in The Walrus. It’s called “Flesh by Numbers”, and it’s by Stephen Marche. You can read about my initial reaction to the story on my blog, here.

The story is about a yuppie Toronto couple that’s trying to reinvigorate their sex life. It’s crude, brutal and a hilarious. Recently, it was nominated for a National Magazine Award. Well-deserved.

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Will Johnson is a writer, journalist and photographer from Victoria, B.C. He lives with his girlfriend Darby and his pet budgies Hemingway and Miriam.

Be sure to check out his fantastic blog, Literary Goon, and keep an eye out for Will’s next Little Fiction title coming later this year. His most recent story at LF is If They Had Music, and you can download it here.

Leesa Cross-Smith for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer and editor Leesa Cross-Smith.
 
Best Short Story Collections I Read In The Last Year:

DAMN SURE RIGHT by Meg Pokrass

BREAK ANY WOMAN DOWN by Dana Johnson (my full review @ The Female Gaze) 

TOGETHER WE CAN BURY IT by Kathy Fish (recommendation forthcoming @ The Lit Pub)

TELL EVERYONE I SAID HI by Chad Simpson

BATTLEBORN by Claire Vaye Watkins

Why? 

These authors know how to get out of their own way in order to tell a story. I don’t like hovering waiters or salespeople who get all up in my face. Same for writers. I love it when a writer steps back and just lets me disappear into the story. Also, these authors know how and when to end a story. I looove the endings. Although very different, what these authors have in common is the ability to write things simply, beautifully and patiently. I am always looking for atmosphere, small sweetnesses. Pokrass and Fish are pros at the teeny tiny story. Flash fictions I want to read over and over again. Devour them like little cookies. Johnson and Simpson and Watkins have written much longer stories but still, I enjoy rereading them and finding new things to love each time like little story snow globes I can shake. Watch them storm and settle.

Six individual short stories I recently read and loved:
HALIBUT POINT by MOLLY DEKTAR 
HUMMINGBIRDS by SAM WILSON 
THE YEAR I LEARNED EVERYTHING by ROXANE GAY 
THE MOST SERENE REPUBLIC by TERI VLASSOPOULOS 
COLD PASTORAL by MARINA KEEGAN
GREAT MIND DESTROYER by ROBERT JAMES RUSSELL 
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Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker/writer from Kentucky, and the editor of Whiskey Paper. You can read her short stories all over the internets, including at Little Fiction. Of course. We also have a new story of Leesa’s coming in the next little while. Stay tuned.

Jay Hosking for #shortstorymonth

To celebrate Short Story Month, we’ve asked some awesome writers, editors, and other literary types to weigh in on their favourite stories and collections, and what makes a piece of short lit great. Today, writer Jay Hosking.
 
LF: What do you love about reading short stories / essays?
JAY: Something to unsettle the status quo, some truth I knew but hadn’t told myself yet.
 
LF: What is the best short story you’ve read in the last year? And why?
JAY: Reports of Certain Events in London by China Miéville. A central conceit that is mindblowing, visceral, and works as an incredibly intuitive metaphor.
 
LF: What makes a short story great / what do you look for?
JAY: Strong line-by-line reading. Essential, distilled moments. And most importantly, content so meaningful that you forget how great the prose was.
 
LF: Do you have a favorite short story collection? And what makes it your favourite?
JAY: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. Her focus was perfectly narrowed: humanity and its relation to life, sex, gender, and death. Every story builds an entirely new world and subsequently destroys it. Every line seems written with an unsustainable level of passion and vibrance. The Man Who Walked Home is perhaps the best short story I have ever read. But she can summarize the book better than I can: “Man is an animal whose dreams come true and kill him.”
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Jay Hosking is a fiction writer, neuroscience PhD candidate, and musician currently living in Vancouver. You can follow him on twitter here. And read his short story Analogue here. He also has a story called The Vector, forthcoming from Little Fiction.

The Goddess Lisa.

According to Erin Frances Fisher’s blog, her story (and Little Fiction debut) The Goddess Lisa was inspired by a simple piece of graffiti etched into a sidewalk between her home and work. 

How she goes from those few words to the story about expectant parents at the end of the world is the work a true talent. Told with compassion, fear and honesty, The Goddess Lisa is as much about humankind caught in the sights of our planet’s dying sun as it is about these two people and all the things left unsaid. 

The Goddess Lisa can be downloaded for—and read on—your iPhone, iPad or eReader, for free.

Again and.

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When Again and by Eileen Mary Hokowka first came to Little Fiction we weren’t even sure what is about (and still might not be). But we loved it immediately. It’s a story full of vivid images, heartbreak, loss, and endings. One after another. Ending after ending. It’s a story as striking for its form as it is for its content.

Eileen has said that this is her first fiction publication (second if you’re including her story Things I Want from our Listerature Vol. 2 compilation) and we couldn’t be more proud to share that honour with her. Because judging by the strength of her first, it will definitely be the first of many.

Again and can be downloaded for—and read on—your iPhone, iPad or eReader, for free.