On a Winter’s Night, by Kate DiCamillo Read it here in less than 10 minutes. Thinking about why I love it… I love metafiction, so the opening sentence – ‘My father told me this story.’ – immediately entices me; it makes me think, ‘Yes! Tell me the story! I want to hear it!’. This first sentenceContinue reading “A short story I recently read”
Tag Archives: Structure
A short story I recently read
‘Heat’, by Joyce Carol Oates Read it here in about 20 minutes. Thinking about why I love it… The story builds up in layers, right from the very first paragraph, adding detail as it moves forward. So, you’re given information about the time of year, the place, the twins, the fact they’re dead… Then, moreContinue reading “A short story I recently read”
A short story I recently read
Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury Read it here in about 10 minutes. Thinking about why I love it… The opening paragraph is a mixture of metaphors (‘can opener’ / ‘silverfish’ / ‘sea’ / ‘meteor swarm’), which shouldn’t work, and writers are told not to mix metaphors because of this, but it does work, because it perfectlyContinue reading “A short story I recently read”
A short story I recently read
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson Read it here in about 10 minutes. Thinking about why I love it… I love stories that are divided into sections, and in this particular story we have a division into two sections, although there’s no clear reason why that is (i.e. there are no section titles; theContinue reading “A short story I recently read”
A flash fiction story
‘Your Mother Imagines You Dead’, by Bethany Marcel Read it here in about 5 minutes. Thinking about why I love it… I don’t have children, but I do have anxiety, so can appreciate what the protagonist experiences in this story – the all-consuming, exhausting, worry. This line in particular speaks to me: ‘Anxiety believes ifContinue reading “A flash fiction story”
A protest poetry collection
Deaf Republic, by Ilya Kaminsky A coherent selection of the poems from this collection has been published in The New Yorker. I’m going to talk about the first 3 poems, which you can read in less than 10 minutes. In relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 2022 Winter Olympics, and everything else happening inContinue reading “A protest poetry collection”
A short protest story
‘Condensed Milk’, by Varlam Shalamov (trans. John Glad) Read it here in 6 minutes. In relation to the 2022 Winter Olympics, thinking about how we can use literature to protest… Shalamov spent almost one-quarter of his life in Russian gulags (forced-labour camps), for being critical of, and protesting against, his own government. This story presumablyContinue reading “A short protest story”
My top 10 of 2021
Here are just some of my favourites from my 2021 reading: ‘The Blind Woman Without a Toe’, by Intan Paramaditha, from the collection Apple and Knife Paramaditha’s short story collection reimagines fairy and folk tales, with a dark twist. This particular story is a fun retelling of Cinderella, while the others are tales from the author’sContinue reading “My top 10 of 2021”
A short story for winter
‘Winter Break’ by Hilary Mantel Read it here in about 15 minutes. Thinking about time… Time is important in this story, for several reasons. Firstly, time is used as a structural device. The story is just under 2,000 words long, and spans the duration of a taxi ride from the airport to the couple’s hotel,Continue reading “A short story for winter”
To MA or not to MA?
The MA in Creative Writing I’ve just completed my Master’s degree in Creative Writing. Why did I study an MA? I’m a secondary school English teacher. It occurred to me a few years ago that although I was teaching creative writing, I’d never studied it myself. I decided to fix that, and return to somethingContinue reading “To MA or not to MA?”
Mina Ma 