By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Wants’ is a very short story by the American writer Grace Paley (1922-2007). First published in the Atlantic in 1972, it was the opening story in Paley’s 1974 collection, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute and remains one of her most popular and widely studied stories.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Fancy a very short story about voyeurism, exhibitionism, and titillation? Raymond Carver’s story ‘The Idea’ has all three, and in his trademark minimalist style and utilising first-person narration, he presents us with a short tale told by a suburban housewife who takes an unhealthy interest in her neighbours’ nighttime activities.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Crossover’ is a 1971 short story by Octavia Butler (1947-2006), first published in the anthology Clarion before being included in Butler’s short-story collection Bloodchild and Other Stories. This very short story explores a number of themes including poverty, hopelessness, addiction, and the blurred line between reality and illusion, as the story’s protagonist, Jane, struggles with her dependence on alcohol.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
It takes particular skill to write a short story that is also one long sentence. But Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) has proved herself to be especially adept at it. ‘The Letter from Home’ – originally published in the New Yorker in April 1981 – is one such example of the single-sentence short story which appears straightforward and even banal on the surface, but which conceals something more metaphysical and troubling underneath.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Insane Ones’ is a 1962 short story by the British author J. G. Ballard (1930-2009). The story concerns a world in which the various nations have been combined under one totalitarian government known as the United World (UW).
Psychiatry has been outlawed, and people with mental health problems are ‘free’ to live as they wish, with the law punishing them for any crimes or transgressions they commit.