I write short stories, and poems. I have just readied a collection of ten stories, and am hunting for publishers and/or agents who enjoy reading my work. Born and educated in remote part of Nepal, I, of course, have picked up the events of Nepal life. however, I believe the plots and the stories at large carry universal implications. The quest, the title story of the collection, for example explores the two early twenty boys’ aches of not being heard. Even if adroit at their respective professions, they are agonized at having to listen to the jitters. The protagonists, Kiran and Prasoon, after a drunk gambol, meander along the cities of Kathmandu wondering why they frequently drink and conclude they drink at forget. when they reach at a knoll which boasts of the view of Kathmandu, they abruptly decide to call names at Kathmandu, a quagmire that has been able to ‘fuck us’. The story culminates at their being tired and Prasoon reaching a lesson “we are not complete. why da fuck should the incomplete vain shout?”
I believe the stories are really readable. Longer in size, the stories truly convey iconoclastic juggernaut that is about to spring up.

if anyone is interested to read them.
please email at prolificsantu@hotmail.com

Good luck to all aspiring scribblers such as me,
Brad Neal Clark

Can You Help?

Thank You

Phil

Tania

The idea for the book came when I was sitting in my living room one night, alone. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, but of course, there was nobody there as I was the only one home. I sat on the notion for a moment that I was seeing another dimension of life and that took my imagination away - but I’m not a SciFi type of girl, so I had to think in my terms of another dimension - this brought me to writing quick scenes of others life. A novel takes you through a period of time, a short story - or mine anyway, and most I read - give you a scene and leave you thinking about that person and their situation.

Typically my writing comes out of my life, but this time, I got to do what I had always wanted to do, and make it all up. What fun. What wonder.

Keep writing them, keep reading them, keep enjoying them.

Don’t believe the hype…

I too am incurable optimist when it comes to the American short story….
So much so that it sorta bothers me when the NYTBR spends a full 1/3 of a very brief introduction making the claim that their list somehow signals a “resurgence of the short story.”

Especially when you consider this:

The NYTBR 100 Notable books for the past two years (2008 and 2007) each include nine short story collections. Do this mean that when you go from nine to twelve, it’s a “resurgence”? And who’s to say that there weren’t three more great collections in 2008 and 2007 that could have been included? I mean, the 2009 list doesn’t even include Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge”….which is only the 7th collection of short stories to ever win the Pulitzer Prize. That’s not “notable”?

Further, if one looks back a full decade, to 1999, the NYTBR suggestion of a “resurgence” appears even more suspect….

1999 was a great year for the short story. Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize; it was just the 6th collection of short stories to even snatch the award, and it was the first paperback original to EVER win.

But, even more interesting, is that the 1999 NYTBR 100 Notable Books list includes no less than 29 short story collections! More than double the twelve collections on 2009’s list!

So, we should be insisting that the short story is not having a “resurgence” because it has always been thriving!! People have never stopped writing short stories, and people have never stopped reading the short story. Enough already with the “resurgence” talk….

Joshua

I may be an incurable optimist, but I’m not the only one. Did you happen to catch the good news for short story writers in the New York Time’s list of 100 Notable Books of 2009?

Here’s a quote:

“One heartening development has been the resurgence of the short story — and of the short-story writer. Twelve collections made our fiction list, and four biographies of short-story masters are on the nonfiction list.”

Check it out:
http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/100-notable-books-of-2009-gift-guide/list.html?em

-Alan

For example, I’ve got one of those fat “Writer’s Market” books with all the listings of publishers and agents. I think about 5 agents out of a hundred or so claim they’re interested in taking short story collections, and all five of them are lying.

Am I telling it like it is or not?

I would like to post a sample chapter of my nonfiction story, and I do not know where to post it. I appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you.

Sure, I’m no Kurt Vonnegut, so my chances of getting my stories in The New Yorker are virtually non-existent, but at least I see a professional’s opinion that reinforces my idea just enough to make me think I might actually have a shot (no matter how small!) if I actually get to writing it.

Thanks for your note. Between Simon Van Booy’s recent visit, his win of the O’Connor Award, and your piece above, I’ve been encouraged to work on a longer essay about short stories in America today.

I was wondering about your take on BookScan. You mention them in your piece about short stories. According to their web site, by the way, they now claim to capture 75% of sales, not 70%. Amazing how they were able to bump that by a nice neat, round 5%, ay?

Here’s my problem with BookScan: they kill debut books, likely short story collection especially. They offer too much “information” too quickly, thus seriously hurting a book’s chance to find its audience and catch on organically. With that said, I’m not sure BookScan’s “information” can be trusted.

Here’s why:

I have spoken with authors who insist that the BookScan numbers don’t line up with their royalty checks.
Let me explain it in round numbers:
Let’s say a book sells 100 copies. By BookScan’s claims, they would be able to capture at least 70 or 75 of those sales. So they issue a report…and then someone at Publisher’s Weekly says, “Oh, those are bad sales.” And writes a story saying, “John Smith’s debut novel failed to perform and sold just 75 copies.”

But then….John Smith gets a royalty check…and it’s for selling 225 books…
How can that be? You see? Who do you think is wrong here, BookScan? Or the accountants at a publishing house…where the last thing they’d ever do is OVERPAY an author?

This isn’t an example, but a very real situation presented to me off-the-record by a very “big” author (I’ll leave it at that, as I fear naming prizes, etc. would be inappropriate).

So, what is your take on BookScan? Good for the industry? Bad? Flawed? Perfect?

Thanks!
Joshua

The first 5 are out of print, so I got the copyrights back from the editors and published them on demand on Lulu.com and Createspace.com. My last book was translated into English and I decided to publish it also on demand. I own the copyrights for the English edition, but the original Portuguese edition, published by my publisher, is still being sold in Brazilian bookstores.

Here is the point: writing short stories gives me a faster reward feeling than writing a whole book at once. Besides that, blogs are a great tool to take my writing’s temperature in a more often way and check out with my readers which way to go.

Regards,

Martin

I have written a few shorts over the years. Nothing published yet. The piece I am now in the middle of is a collection that will cover many years of fictional time (as well as real effort time by me). All of the stories in this collection relate to the same time line, but are not always connected in any direct way. Each story is intended to stand on its own, but some contain people and events for other stories of the collection.

I have two stories ready to submit as shorts (two more are very close), and the whole collection should run over 100,000 words by the time it is wrapped up as a book.

Just researching how to do the first submissions and found myself here… Good luck to all!

Ralph

Thanks for your very informed and thorough comment, with the added information about Annie Proulx, Richard Ford, and Michael Chabon. Thanks also for the latest breaking news on short story publication and prizes. I hope this encourages writers to realize that agents and publishers continue to be interested in and looking for good short story collections.

Re Proulx, Ford, and Chabon, I should have explained that they were novelists who also wrote short stories, and didn’t intend to imply that their short story writing led them to try a novel.

Meanwhile there are more short story collections by both first time and veteran authors every year. There are also more prizes. Check out Publisher’s Weekly and Publisher’s Marketplace on a daily basis, and you’ll see that good deals are being made as agents are selling and publishers buying short story collections.

-Alan

Great piece. And close to my heart as well. I actually hosted the short story writer Simon Van Booy for a reading on Oct 25 and used it as an opportunity to praise the form. [*Van Booy’s collection “Love Begins in Winter” is stunning and just won the O’Connor Award…a very important new award for those of us who love the short story.]

Anyhow, I did want to mention that in your take on Richard Ford, Proulx, and Chabon….it doesn’t really make sense…

Ford wrote “A Mulitude of Sins” two books AFTER winning the Pulitzer. It is probably better to note that before “Independence Day,” he published the amazing colleciton “Rock Springs.” It was actually that collection and “The Sportswriter” that made his reputation…

Chabon is so-so…though, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” had already launched him…

And with Proulx, again, she’d already won the Pulitzer when “Brokeback Mountain” came out. So, not a great example.I’m not saying I agree with the idea that only established authors get to “play” around with the short story, but it does happen…like Richard Russo publishing that so-so collection “The Whore’s Child” only after so many novels and after winning the Pulitzer…which is sad cause, you know, his agent discovered him via a short story in a university journal!

So let’s just focus on better examples….

Like Lahiri winning the Pulitzer for a story colleciton BEFORE she wrote her first novel, “The Namesake.” You went right to her new collection, but left that out.

I’d like to argue that in fact more first time short story collections than ever are being published right now. What are your thoughts?

*Lastly, I just discovered the new collection by Lydia Peelle this past weekend. A first colleciton. Brilliant so far!

Best,
Joshua