May is Short Story Month, and this year All Lit Up celebrates this under-appreciated form with Short and Sweet, a little series featuring 12 short story collections and their authors, who share brief thoughts on the short form.
See more details belowHow's your attention span lately?
Let's put it this way: are you more likely to opt for an entire season of TV rather than one single film? The short story is the literary answer to the TV-watcher's dilemma. Like a TV show, it encapsulates an entire plot arc in a short span of time, but hints at more. It sits among a "season" - we call them collections, folks - of its fellows. You can likely finish one in ~30 minutes. And, like a lot of TV produced since The Sopranos, short stories are excellent, allow their authors to explore new narrative devices and get into the meat of a character's problem right away.
Short and Sweet is All Lit Up's celebration of the short story for 2022. Tune in every Tuesday this month to catch up with 12 authors, their collections, and their thoughts about short story writing. And, read short samples of their short stories to get a taste for one of our favourite literary forms.
Chih-Ying Lay and Home Sickness (Linda Leith Publications) | feature
Aaron Schneider and What We Think We Know (Gordon Hill Press) | feature
Sofi Papamarko and Radium Girl (Wolsak & Wynn) | feature
Helen Chau Bradley and Personal Attention Roleplay (Metonymy Press) | feature
Katie Bickell and Always Brave, Sometimes Kind (Brindle & Glass) | feature
Terry Doyle and Dig (Breakwater Books) | feature
Alex Pugsley and Shimmer (Bibiloasis) | feature
Silmy Abdullah and Home of the Floating Lily (Dundurn Press) | feature
Phoebe Tsang and Setting Fire to Water (Thistledown Press) | feature
Elizabeth Allua Vaah and Maame (Mawenzi House) | feature
Brent Van Staalduinen and Cut Road (Guernica Editions) | feature
Dayle Furlong and Lake Effect (Cormorant Books) | feature
Don't forget to check in with us here and on our socials @alllitupcanada with the hashtag #ALUShortandSweet to enjoy a little sweet shortness - or is it short sweetness? - all month long.
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