Short Stories in the UK

[coalescent]

Endangered Species has a report on 'the short story in the UK'. It's a 60-odd page pdf, but there's some interesting information. It basically doesn't cover genre fiction, though, so apart from anything else, I wish I had time to sit down and compare its figures with those from, say, the Locus year-in-review issue. A couple of bullet-points, though:

• Short story books represent about 2.5% of all adult fiction purchased.


• Over half of all short story titles published come from independent publishers (whatever that means).


• Just over half of all light and medium readers say they sometimes read books of short stories; of those who don't read shorts, 25% say shorts don't cover their preferred genres, 20% say they just prefer longer stories, and 17% say short stories are harder to read than normal books.


• There need to be more outlets for publishing short stories; the situation in the UK is contrasted with the (much more favourable) situation in the US.


• The most common suggestion for improving the profile of the short story as a form was to create a high-profile prize - 'the short fiction Booker', or something. Also suggested was an annual anthology.

I realise my friends list is atypical (this report is very definitely focused on 'the literary short story'), but - do you read short stories? If no, why not? If yes, who are your favourite authors? Do you prefer to buy collections or anthologies?

Most of the short stories I read these days seem to be in the magazines - Asimov's, Interzone, F&SF. After that, any new books I read tend to be novels. I may have just ordered Mary Gentle's Cartomancy from Amazon, but most of my other recent short-fiction purchases - Ian Macleod's Voyages By Starlight; Matthew Derby's Super Flat Times; Lucius Shepard's The Jaguar Hunter; Cory Doctorow's A Place So Foreign And Eight More - come from the states, and most commonly from the small presses.

Comments

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

do you read short stories?

Yes.

If yes, who are your favourite authors?

Favourite short story authors are Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg (yes, his novels are shit, but his shorts are great), R. A. Lafferty, Ted Chiang and Joan Aiken (both ghost stories and fantasy/fairy stories).

Do you prefer to buy collections or anthologies?

It depends on the genre. For SF I find that single author collections work better, but for ghost and horror stories I find that anthologies often work well.

I sometimes find with SF that the stories that get anthologised are not the ones I like best, so I like to go for author collections. SF anthologies usually restrict themselves to a particular time period or topic. Ghost/horror and even non-genre anthologies are less restrictive in this way, so I find the overall quality is sometimes better.

I read quite a bit of short fiction in the form of magazines such as Asimov's and Granta. You find some gems that way, but again, it can be patchy.

[wg.livejournal.com]

i don't tend to read short stories. the collections i own are by authors whom i know from their novels (greg egan and michael marshall smith spring to mind, there may be other examples lurking on my bookshelves)

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

do you read short stories?
yup

who are your favourite authors?
(now) Haruki Murakami, Will Self
(then) James Tiptree Jnr, Jack Vance
(perennial) J G Ballard, Angela Carter

collections or anthologies?
Usually collections, unless:
the anthology has an interesting theme
the anthology contains a story I want that isn't available elsewhere
the anthology has an interesting person editing it
the anthology has very nice design/cover/etc. (yes, I really am that shallow)

As far as prizes go ... there are quite a lot of short fiction prizes already, usually linked to an anthology, which I then get to watch progress through the Oxfam Bookshop; what would make a new one any better?

No, what I'd like would be an extension of The Booker to include different categories -- best new author, best international author, best short story, best character, people's choice, best poem, best article -- and a huge glittering award ceremony full of celebrities falling out of unfortunate dresses and big drunken teary acceptance speeches spattered with embarassing political statements and a three-hour special on the BBC, damnit -- are we a literary nation, or not?

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

(now) Haruki Murakami, Will Self

I've read two of Self's short story collections. They're interesting and quirky, but I somehow find them lacking that extra ingredient...

(then) James Tiptree Jnr, Jack Vance

I've been looking for James Tiptree Jnr shorst for ages, but can't find any. They tend not to turn up second hand, and there's not a massive amount of her stuff in print now, it seems.

However, I did find a second-hand collection of Vance shorts at Picocon this year.

(perennial) J G Ballard, Angela Carter

The only Ballard shorts I've read were a couple from the collection Myths of the Near Future, which I wasn't too keen on, and some of the stuff he had published in the 'Best of 1960/70-something' anthologies, which were almost unreadable. Which collections would you recommend?

I don't rate Vance's novels

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

but do like his shorts. Same goes for Self ... *shrug* Self is variable but likeable when good. Too famous for anyone to force him to be good, though. His SF is a lot worse than his contemporary mood pieces.

Tiptree is golddusteriffic. I've seen her about once in ten years at the Oxfam Book Shop (and therefore have one collection! woo!) I originally read her by ordering everything I could get from by and about her at the Bodleian. It was a two-week wait or something (out in the warehouse) and not even close to comprehensive.

My favourite collection by Ballard is Vermillion Sands. It's lazily romantic, many of the stories are about art, technology and future society, and he bites down on his urge to get experimental.

Short stories?

[applez.livejournal.com]

No, I don't read them.

Because:

There are usually more than I can possibly read all in a year; my introductions to short stories are usually via longer-fiction by authors I like; and I don't subscribe to fiction magazines due to insufficient time. It's either the mags and newspapers, or the books growing in ever greater profundity.

Re: Short stories?

[ajr.livejournal.com]

There are usually more than I can possibly read all in a year.

If you'll forgive me for saying, that strikes me as a strange reason for not reading short stories. After all, the same reasoning can be used - with more justification - for not reading novels or other longer fiction.

Personally I enjoy reading short stories because I can read more of them in a year than I can read novels. Given the choice between reading one novel or ten short stories, I'd probably go for the stories. Your mileage obviously varies. :)

Re: Short stories?

[applez.livejournal.com]

No, I have simply come to the point where I have only enough time to devote, so is best spent on 'best of' literature. Generally, I expect there to be a whole lot more 'best of' short stories than long fiction. Worse, there are few 'best of' committees for short stories, so one ends up having to delve through most of it oneself.

No thanks - I just stay at the edge of OUSFGi discussions and pull out choice items to read when I can.

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want answers from bored occasional readers as well as friends:

Do you read short stories?

Yes, though they're usually not things I've bought - they're most likely to be stories that turn up free online (on Infinity Plus (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/) for genre things, and Gutenburg.net and the like for anything else).

If yes, who are your favourite authors?

Saki, Damon Runyon, Angela Carter, Greg Egan, Chesterton, Huxley, Borges.

Joyce, Shirley Jackson, Kipling and Chekhov all spring to mind as the source of stories that are among my favourites, but either I haven't read many of their others, or I didn't much like them.

Do you prefer to buy collections or anthologies?

Collections. I don't buy anthologies at all unless they're sitting at the back of a junk shop on sale for twenty cents.