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...

Rash invention: Williams, Booth, and building without blueprints

Essay by Richard Smyth Invention isn’t always in fashion. Readers of short fiction, in particular, often favour craft – the literary nanotechnology of world-...

Professor Charles E. May: What Makes a Great Short Story? (No.4 ‘Tea at the Midland’ by David Constantine)

Article By Professor Charles E. May David Constantine, “Tea at the Midland” 2010 BBC National Short Story Award David Constantine has said in an interview...

The Uncanny, by Sigmund Freud

The “Uncanny” 1 (1919) SIGMUND FREUD   I It is only rarely that a psychoanalyst feels impelled to investigate the subject of aesthe...

Professor Charles E. May: What Makes a Great Short Story? (No.3 ‘The not-Dead and the Saved’ by Kate Clanchy)

Article by Professor Charles E. May Kate Clanchy, “The Not-Dead and the Saved” 2009 BBC Short Story Award Sometimes the subject matter of a short story al...

Professor Charles E. May: What Makes a Great Short Story? (No.3 ‘The Numbers’ by Clare Wigfall)

Article by Professor Charles E. May Clare Wigfall, “The Numbers” 2008 BBC National Short Story Award Martha Kearney, chair of the judges of the BBC Nation...