short story article
On the Outsize Power of the Short Story (AKA the Genre of “High Genius”) ‹ Literary Hub (lithub.com) On the Outsize Power of the Short Story (AKA the Genre of “High Genius”) Daphne Kalotay Reminds Us of the Value of Short Fiction By Daphne Kalotay April 13, 2023 Story collections are the country cousins of the American publishing landscape, tolerated with benevolent condescension while their authors are urged to produce that more glamorous product: novels. A novel might find a broad audience, even become a bestseller! Whereas—as a writer friend once put it—“You tell your agent you’ve written a story collection, and she looks at you like you farted.” Yes, stories often represent a first foray into fiction—but for many authors, they remain the preferred genre. Gina Berriault, whose collected volume Women in Their Beds won the National Book Award shortly before her death, confessed that, were it not for pressure from her publisher, she never would have penned her nov...
