I thought it'd be cool to show you a recent photo from the short story display case at work. There seems to have been a sudden flurry of very good short story collections being published. Hurray!
Starting from the top we have Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "The Thing Around Your Neck", "Midsummer Nights" edited by Jeanette Winterson, and James Lasdun "It's Beginning to Hurt"(which looks excellent, though I haven't read it yet.)
First shelf we have Tania Hershman's "The White Road and other stories". Tania was recently commended by the Chair of Judges of the Orange Award for New Writers who said "(her) work stood out for its remarkable quality. We look forward to seeing more of (her) writing in the future.", then a really interesting anthology called "Punk Fiction" which features stories from a diverse range of people who were inspired by punk - amongst them Billy Bragg and Billy Childish, Kate Pullinger and Lane Ashfeldt. Next there is "An Elegy for Easterly" by Petina Gappah. You can read Vanessa Gebbie's review of the book in this months Pulp Net. Also there is Wells Tower's much written about/hyped collection "Everything Ravaged, everything Burned"
Second shelf features Eliazabeth Baines "Balancing on the Edge of the World", Sylvia Plath's "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" which sells well when in a prominent place. Perhaps people think Plath = poetry and The Bell Jar (incidentally, there is a new edition of The Bell Jar from Faber, it's part of their 80th celebration, and I had to buy it just because it is so gorgeous. All of the Faber 80's covers are scrummy.) Janice Galloway's superb "Where You Find It" and "The Book of Other People"
The third shelf has "Let's Call the Whole thing off: Love quarrels from Anton Chekov to ZZ Packer" - and includes a tiny piece from a writer I adore - Frances Gapper, as well as Ali Smith, Jackie Kay and Dorothy Parker, then deliciously quirky "No One Belongs Here More Than You" by Miranda July, "In Bed With..." full of anonymous sexy stories by well known authors including Ali Smith, Stella Duffy, Fay Weldon and Emma Darwin, and "The Pleasant Light of Day" by Phillip O'Ceallaigh.
The last shelf is rather cool, with "Everyday" by Lee Rourke, "The Loudest Sound and Nothing" by Clare Wigfall, "One World - a Global anthology" which I blogged about here, and Four Letter Word, which if I'm honest is the only thing not picked by me and has been replaced by
Lorrie Moore's "Collected Stories" (a must) which is now available in paperback.
Phew - I have link fatigue.
2 months ago
9 comments:
Oh, now, doesn't your display case look lovely. I clicked on the image, it blew up all big, so nice, I could almost be right there. You really do have the most wonderful selection. Good on you, champion of the short story!
Liking that VERY much - and they say the British public/booksellers/market don't want the short story. Pah, we say back.
gosh, this looks gorgeous...
How cool! Man, I'm SO GLAD The Bell Jar has a lovely new cover, I've always disliked the design of the rubbishy old one, it's so '80s. Mmm all the Faber 80 covers are indeed rather fab, although unfortunatley the new cover of New York Trilogy is something of a non-event.
You do such good stuff for the short story Sara. Good on ya!!! (Am reading Flannery O'Connor at the mo. Wow.)
VG Sara. I love booksellers like you! Mwah x
Yes, that display is beautiful. The rest of is actually very nice too with displays next to the stairs. I will definitely have to take another trip.
That article at Jane Smith's (well, actually, the whole trilogy) was very interesting indeed.
Brilliant - what a fab job you're doing!
Nik :)
Nice display!
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