I Submitted 100 Short Stories in 2017 – Here’s What I Learnt

Metrics distort. This has long been a favourite saying of mine. What you measure changes what you accomplish. 2017 was the year I started using a spreadsh...

What Makes a Great Short Story? (Sarah Hall’s ‘Mrs Fox’)

Article by Professor Charles E. May Mariella Frostrup, chair of the 2013 judges of the BBC National Short Story Award, said all the judges were “seduced” by ...

Short Story Recommendation: Before the Storm, by Alex Sheal

Recommendation by Josephine Greenland I met her in a cocktail bar, but she wasn’t working as a waitress. She was getting drunk like me at the counter, blabbing...

What Makes a Great Short Story? (‘East of the West’ by Miroslav Penkov)

Article by Professor Charles E. May Miroslav Penkov, “East of the West”: BBC Winner, 2012 I suspect what won over the judges in the 2012 BBC National Shor...

Literary Rock Pools: Why the Short Story is Alive and Well

Article by Mark Stewart Many people in mainstream publishing will tell you that no one reads short stories anymore. But that simply isn’t true. The short sto...

What Makes a Great Short Story? (‘The Dead Roads’ by DW Wilson)

Article by Professor Charles E. May DW Wilson, 'The Dead Roads' BBC Winner, 2011 In his Guardian review, John Burnside says that the characters in DW Wils...

Lessons in Launching a Literary Journal, by Dan Coxon

Dan Coxon, editor of The Shadow Booth, explains why he has decided to launch a new journal of weird and eerie short stories, and explores the challenges that ed...

TSS Recommendations: ‘The Itch’ by Don DeLillo

Recommendation by Josephine Greenland After the divorce he felt an odd numbness, mental and physical. He looked in the mirror, studying the face that looked ba...