Ailsa Cox

Catherine Sheldrick Ross

Corinne Bigot

J.R. (Tim) Struthers

What in terms of Alice Munro’s creative artistry and creative power allowed her to become the first and only short story writer, the first and only Canadian, and just the thirteenth woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in Literature? And exactly when during Munro’s career did her artistry and power advance to ensure that she would earn such world-wide renown? The answers lie in studying the boldly innovative yet greatly under-examined group of her four mid-career breakthrough books. Our volume therefore provides a carefully orchestrated analysis of Munro’s subtle yet potent handling of form, technique and style both within individual stories and across these special collections. Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books: A Suite in Four Voices not only addresses a significant vacancy in Munro criticism – and, by extension, in all short story criticism – but, equally importantly, offers an exciting new model for how criticism can be collectively written.

A Suite in Four Voices

Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books

James Hewison

Michelle Man

The English born artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) has received much critical acclaim and achieved stellar status in Mexico, where she lived and worked for most of her life, having fled Europe via Spain in tormenting circumstances. Leonora Carrington: Living Legacies brings together a collection of chapters that constitute a range of artistic, scholarly and creative responses to the realm of Carrington emphasizing how her work becomes a medium, a milieu, and a provocation for new thinking, being and imagining in the world. The diversity of contributions from scholars, early career researchers, and artists, include unpublished papers, interviews, creative provocations, and writing from practice-led interventions. Collectively they explore, question, and enable new ways of thinking with Carrington's legacy. Wishing to expand on recent important scholarly publications by established Carrington researchers which have brought historical and international significance to the artist's legacy, this volume offers new perspectives on the artist's relevance in feminist thinking and artistic methodologies. Conscious of Carrington's reluctance to engage in critical analysis of her artwork we have approached this scholarly task through a lens of give and return that the artist herself musingly articulates in her 1965 mock-manifesto Jezzamathatics: "I was decubing the root of a Hyperbollick Symposium ... when the latent metamorphosis blurted the great unexpected shriek into something between a squeak and a smile. IT GAVE, so to speak, in order to return." (Aberth, 2010:149). In adopting her playful conjecture, this publication seeks to bring Carrington and her work to further prominence.

Living Legacies

Leonora Carrington

The Real Louise and Other Stories

Alice Munro s standing as a major contemporary author has long been acknowledged in her native Canada, especially among her fellow writers. Her reputation developed slowly, from small magazines and radio in the fifties, to three Governor General s Awards and regular appearances in The New Yorker. As a short story writer she is working within a critically neglected genre. Yet short fiction displays an intensity of language and experience that is rarely sustainable across longer forms. Drawing on Bakhtinian theory, Ailsa Cox looks at ways in which Munro develops the short story s affinity with the present moment to suggest a fluid and ever-changing reality.

Alice Munro

Ideal for those new to the genre or for anyone who wishes to improve their technique, Ailsa Cox’s guide will help readers achieve their full potential as a short story writer. The book encourages you to be inventive, to break writing habits and to try something new, by showing the diversity of the short story genre, from cyberpunk to social observation. Each chapter of the book: introduces key aspects of the craft of short story writing, including structure, dialogue, characterization, viewpoint, narrative voice and more shows how a wide variety of published writers have approached the short story genre, in order to deepen the insights you gain from your own work gets you writing, with a series of original, sometimes challenging but always rewarding exercises, which can be tackled alone or adapted for use in a group includes activities at the end of each chapter. Ailsa Cox draws on her experience as a writer to provide essential information on drafting and editing, as well as a rich Resources section, which lists print and online journals that accept the work of new writers. Whether you’re writing as part of a course, in a workshop group or at home alone, this book will equip and inspire you to write better short stories, and make you a more skilled, enthusiastic and motivated writer of short stories.

Writing Short Stories

The short story is moving from relative neglect to a more central position in the literary curriculum. As a teaching tool, its accessibility offers students a route into many complex areas, including critical theory, gender studies, postcolonialism, literary adaptation and genre. Teaching the Short Story offers a practical guide to the short story in the classroom, covering all these fields - and more. With a team of international contributors including Charles E. May, whose Short Story Theories marked the beginning of the current revival in short story criticism, it demonstrates, above all, the potential of the short story as a genre in its own right. Teaching the Short Story explores current debates and challenges facing short story scholars and writers in Britain and the US. It is an essential introduction both to those who are new to this diverse and exciting field; and also suggests future directions for those undertaking postgraduate research in the short story.

Teaching the Short Story

Long regarded as an undervalued and marginalised genre, the short story is undergoing a renaissance. The Short Story celebrates its unique appeal. Practitioners and scholars address the issues facing short story criticism in the 21st century. Author A.L. Kennedy shares the pleasures and frustrations of writing the short story in the literary marketplace. This is followed by an assessment of recent attempts to promote short story readership in the UK. Other contributors look at forms such as the short-short and the short story sequence. The range of authors discussed includes Martin Amis, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie and James Joyce. The short story is the most international of genres; this is reflected in chapters on Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino and on Japanese short fiction. Postcolonial and translation theory are combined with the close reading of specific texts. Neglected authors, such as the Welsh writer Dorothy Edwards and the colonial figure Frank Swettenham, are re-evaluated and we also consider genre writing, with chapters on crime fiction and Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. Integrating theory and practice, The Short Story will appeal both to writers and to students of literary criticism.

The Short Story

Christine Lorre Johnston

The Mind's Eye : Alice Murano's Dance of the Happy Shades

Like Ice, Like Fire

Roger Shannon

The English born artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) has received much critical acclaim and achieved stellar status in Mexico, where she lived and worked for most of her life, having fled Europe via Spain in tormenting circumstances. Leonora Carrington: Living Legacies brings together a collection of chapters that constitute a range of artistic, scholarly and creative responses to the realm of Carrington emphasizing how her work becomes a medium, a milieu, and a provocation for new thinking, being and imagining in the world. The diversity of contributions from scholars, early career researchers, and artists, include unpublished papers, interviews, creative provocations, and writing from practice-led interventions. Collectively they explore, question, and enable new ways of thinking with Carrington’s legacy. Wishing to expand on recent important scholarly publications by established Carrington researchers which have brought historical and international significance to the artist’s legacy, this volume offers new perspectives on the artist’s relevance in feminist thinking and artistic methodologies. Conscious of Carrington’s reluctance to engage in critical analysis of her artwork we have approached this scholarly task through a lens of give and return that the artist herself musingly articulates in her 1965 mock-manifesto Jezzamathatics: “I was decubing the root of a Hyperbollick Symposium … when the latent metamorphosis blurted the great unexpected shriek into something between a squeak and a smile. IT GAVE, so to speak, in order to return.” (Aberth, 2010:149). In adopting her playful conjecture, this publication seeks to bring Carrington and her work to further prominence.

Leonora Carrington: Living Legacies

This new edition of Writing Short Stories has been updated throughout to include new and revised exercises, up-to-date coverage of emerging technologies and a new glossary of key terms and techniques. Ailsa Cox, a published short-story writer, guides the reader through the key aspects of the craft, provides a variety of case studies and examples of how others have approached the genre and sets a series of engaging exercises to help hone your skills. This inspiring book is the ideal guide for those new to the genre or for anyone wanting to improve their technique.

Ailsa Cox

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