My lifelong love affair with reading sprang from my appreciation of my first encounters with short stories, but in the nearly two decades that transpired since my first fictive excursion I managed to read more novels than short stories. By definition, short stories make for quicker reads than novels, yet they’re far less frequently consumed than their longer counterparts. It’s said that it’s perfectly normal for a short story collection by a popular author to sell a mere fraction of the sales of one of that author’s novels. And unless you’re as gifted (and sexy) as Jhumpa Lahiri or as famous (and sexy) as James Franco, trying to break into the literary scene with your debut short story collection is almost certain to be a nonevent. The short story, it seems, is unduly stigmatized for its apparent inadequacy. It’s short; therefore, it’s shit. Wrong. Read more »

My lifelong love affair with reading sprang from my appreciation of my first encounters with short stories, but in the nearly two decades that transpired since my first fictive excursion I managed to read more novels than short stories. By definition, short stories make for quicker reads than novels, yet they’re far less frequently consumed than their longer counterparts. It’s said that it’s perfectly normal for a short story collection by a popular author to sell a mere fraction of the sales of one of that author’s novels. And unless you’re as gifted (and sexy) as Jhumpa Lahiri or as famous (and sexy) as James Franco, trying to break into the literary scene with your debut short story collection is almost certain to be a nonevent. The short story, it seems, is unduly stigmatized for its apparent inadequacy. It’s short; therefore, it’s shit.

Wrong.

Read more »

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  1. velvetrobots said: You must do me a favor and try reading the short fiction of Donald Barthelme.
  2. aldrin posted this

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