In this video, D.D. Johnston discusses a classroom exercise that he uses to illustrate an important difference between short stories and novels.
Category Archives: Short fiction
“A Temporary Matter”: Beginning a Short Story (tip 76) Reply
Following on from our last video, D.D. Johnston looks at the opening to a modern classic short story: “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri. You can read the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lahiri-maladies.html
“Reception Theory” by Nathan Alling Long: Read the story that won the 2017 OWT Short Fiction Prize 2
Professor Max Ludlow has been losing hair for some time, and not being a person oblivious to style —unlike some of his colleagues who groomed their remaining strands into a semblance of a youthful do—he has begun to shave his head. This gives Ludlow a clean, meditative look, cosmopolitan and ageless—his grey hairs now nearly invisible—but it also exposes a star-shaped scar over his right ear, of which he is self-conscious. Or perhaps more accurately, of which he is self-aware—that is, not embarrassed, but cognizant that it is there, though he can only see it when looking in a mirror and turning his head to the left.
When he does see the scar, he often thinks how much it resembles an asterisk, which makes him imagine that in his head is a thought and that the scar is marking an informal footnote, offering a caveat or explanation, there at the bottom of the page—or, in this case, literally at his feet. Sometimes he even glances down at his toes when he thinks this, to see if an explanation might be there. But of course there is never any explanatory note, which he always feels is unfortunate.
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Longlist announced for the 2017 OWT short fiction prize 2
We have a longlist! It’s a slightly longer long list than initially intended because we ran out of time and couldn’t resolve all our arguments – narrowing 300 entries down to 40 was tough enough, and narrowing 40 down to 30 would have taken at least another week.
First, let me say a massive thank you to everyone who entered: it’s been a delight reading such an amazing variety of writing, and it’s been really hard to select just 40 pieces to go forward to the next stage of judging. Many of our choices came down to subjective factors: there are stories we couldn’t fit onto the longlist that I’m sure will find success in other markets.
However, for all the stories we’re sorry to lose at this stage, we’re thrilled with the quality of work we have left. The list features experienced, many-times published and prize-winning authors, but also includes many exciting new voices. We have stories from almost every continent in the world. The next round of judging won’t get any easier, but we’ll be announcing a shortlist of 12 on April 12th.
Congratulations to the following authors who have been longlisted for the 2017 Online Writing Tips Short Fiction Prize:
- Lucas Aresin
- Sudha Balagopal
- Carol Bruer
- Jeff Burd
- Laura Cardona
- Peter Chawaga
- Jules Ross Davidson
- William Dickey
- Darrel Duckworth
- Jacqueline Elliott
- Joe Giordano
- Stephanie Gorniak
- Anita Goveas
- Sleiman El Hajj
- Rinat Harel
- Nada Holland
- Yana Kertes
- Hannah Kubiak
- Alaric Lejano
- Margaret Lesh
- Nathan Alling Long
- Paige Lowe
- Rebecca Lukowski
- Mathabo Masilela
- Jill Campbell Mason
- Liam Mason
- Douglas W. Milliken
- Mike Pearcy
- Melanie Rees
- David Sexton
- James Smith
- Krystal Song
- Eric Taylor
- Ian Thompson
- Norman Turrell
- Mark Webber
- Hannah Whiteoak
- D.K. Whittaker
- Lynette Willoughby
- Linda Xia
OWT short fiction competition – update Reply
The 2017 OWT short fiction competition is now closed for entries. We have received exactly 300 entries – exactly! (The round number seems to us in some way significant.) That’s more than double the number of entries we received last year. We are thrilled – and a little overwhelmed – by the volume and range of submissions we’ve received.
The judging now begins. Alas, we have only three prizes to award, so we apologise that there is no way we can give all entries the recognition that they deserve. Please know how grateful we are to everyone who shared their work, and please remember that with so many strong pieces our choices will inevitably be subjective.
Given the volume of entries, we plan to make our selections in two stages. In the first instance our aim is to narrow the field to a longlist, which we plan to announce on Wednesday 29th March. We will announce authors by their name (or pen name), but, so as not to hinder non-winning entrants’ chances of publishing their stories elsewhere, we will not publish story titles at this stage. Please be patient as we try to choose between so many excellent pieces of writing. Thank you and good luck!
