Deborah Levy & Sarah Hall<\/b><\/p>\n
Thursday 17 October, 7.30pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation<\/b><\/p>\n
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While live Tweeting from Thursday evening\u2019s celebration of the short story, it struck me that both quotes I picked out to share with the ether involved the word \u201cgreat\u201d. How fitting, I mused: more compact doesn\u2019t have to mean less impact; just because something is bijou size-wise doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be big on effect.<\/p>\n
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As if to prove the greatness of short stories, Dr Kaye Mitchell of the University of Manchester\u2019s Centre For New Writing drops into her introduction mention of Alice Munro and Lydia Davis, both recently crowned champions of the form. Something to do with a Nobel Prize and a Man Booker International Prize. \u201cWe\u2019re recognising the international status of the short story at the moment \u2013 it seems to be a good time for it,\u201d suggests Mitchell. And tonight\u2019s guests, Deborah Levy and Sarah Hall, both Man Booker shortlist alumni, aren\u2019t exactly lagging behind in the gong-collecting; in fact, only in the last fortnight did Hall pick up the BBC National Short Story Award, for which Levy was nominated in 2012.<\/p>\n
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Mitchell says that Metro<\/i> newspaper described Hall\u2019s collection, The Beautiful Indifference<\/i>, as \u201cluscious, sensuous stories\u201d; The Guardian<\/i>, meanwhile, called them \u201cdark, fierce and sensual\u201d. Hall reads the first of the bunch, Butcher\u2019s Perfume<\/i>; a Cumbrian tale of schoolyard bullying and bonding that packs a punch in more ways than one. Levy reads from the second of her short story collections, Black Vodka<\/i>, prologuing it with an ice-breaking anecdote: \u201cThe curious thing about titling the collection Black Vodka<\/i> is whenever it gets translated my publishers keep taking me to the best vodka bars they can find when I just want to stay in my hotel room. My next collection is going to be about hypochondria and is called Hot Milk<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cue laughter from the audience, in which are sitting a number of other critically acclaimed writers, then we\u2019re down to the serious business of discussing the art of the short story. \u201cGreat short stories are a drop of something potent,\u201d says Hall, and Levy nods. \u201cI see something and it prints on my mind, like a photograph,\u201d she explains. \u201cI want short stories to be very vital and intense. I think about their metabolism when I write them \u2013 their heartbeat is very fast.\u201d Conversely, they can be a long time in the making, with a \u201cridiculous amount of rewrites\u201d. Hall agrees: \u201cIt took a while for this collection to come together, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s unusual. Short stories are very difficult to perfect.\u201d \u201cThere is a feeling, when you\u2019ve pulled off a short story, of great satisfaction,\u201d affirms Levy. Great stuff.<\/p>\n
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Sarah-Clare Conlon is a prize-winning micro fiction writer with work published by Salt, Comma and Flash. She is also an award-winning culture blogger: see wordsandfixtures.blogspot.com for arts-related news and reviews.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deborah Levy & Sarah Hall Thursday 17 October, 7.30pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation While live Tweeting from Thursday evening\u2019s celebration of the short story, it struck me that both quotes I picked out to share with the ether involved the word \u201cgreat\u201d. How fitting, I mused: more compact doesn\u2019t have to mean less impact; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n