THE SHORT STORY
May 13 2006
Edge Hill, UK
Opening Speaker: A.L. Kennedy (Indelible Acts, Original Bliss)Panel Members include:
Professor Patricia Duncker (Seven Tales of Sex and Death)
Ra Page – Comma PressDan McTiernan – Transmission magazine
Joanne Reardon – script editor (radio)
CALL FOR PAPERS
After many years of comparative neglect, the short story is now acknowledged as a distinctive genre, of crucial importance to world literature. The introduction of a National Short Story Prize marks a revival of interest in the UK. Collections and anthologies are being reviewed more frequently, while short story sites and e-zines are proliferating. As a condensed and fragmentary form, the short story seems especially suited to a twenty-first century readership.
Edge Hill College is hosting a one-day conference aimed at all those writing and researching the short story, whether as practitioners or as literary scholars (or both). Proposals are invited on any aspect of modern and contemporary short fiction and should last no longer than 20 minutes. They may include creative work and presentations. Topics may include – but are not limited to:
§ The short story today – generic identity - the novella - short short stories - sequences and cycles – hypertext– genre and subgenre (e.g. science fiction, horror).
§ Creative presentations - practice-based research – the poetics of the short story - online publishing – small magazines – adaptation.
§ Individual authors (20th and 21st century) – women’s writing – the short story in translation – international perspectives - postcolonial writing - the oral tradition
Please send 100 word abstracts to Dr Ailsa Cox by 24 February 2006 to: coxa@edgehill.ac.uk
The event will also act as a platform to launch the North West Short Story Network (Edge Hill, Lancaster University, St. Martin’s College, Liverpool Hope University, Salford University, Manchester Metropolitan University
Fees £55/£30 for students
For further information please contact Ailsa Cox, Department of English; tel 01695 584121
