My
Horoscope (Aquarius) in the Los Angeles Times today (April 30, 2015)
reads as follows:
"Seize a
chance to get in front of people to talk about what you're selling. Whether it's a product, relationship, or
idea, you'll be persuasive."
Although
I no longer "get in front of people," as I once did in the classroom,
and although I am more than a little reluctant to use the word
"selling" in regard to my ideas about the short story, I have to
admit that I have always hoped to be "persuasive" about the virtues
of that underrated literary form. And I have always fancied myself a
"seize the day" kind of guy.
So!
Tomorrow
is the first day of Short Story Month, an informal recognition that began in
2007 by Dan Wickett of Emerging Writers' Network and which still exists
informally--made up of a loose congregation of bloggers, writers, and critics
with no official, i.e. financial, support, such as the Academy of American Poets' support
of National Poetry Month in April since
1996.
If
you google Short Story Month 2015, you will find a few publishers, such as Atticus
Books, Vintage, and Graywolf, recognizing May as the month of the short
story, and you will see that a few sites have set up plans to publish or invite stories for the next
thirty-one days.
For
several years I have been working on a magnum
opus of sorts—a critical history of the form, analyzing the thematic and
technical characteristics of those stories that serve as milestones in the
genre's development.
This
year, in honor of Short Story Month, I plan to post thirty-one brief discussions (one-a-day, if
my energy holds out) of those stories that mark important points of the short
story's development. I hope to explain why they are important.
I
begin tomorrow by looking at the famous "Falcon" story from
Boccaccio's Decameron.
2 comments:
Yay! Looking forward to the month of May and your discussions.
Thank you! So excited about a post a day from my favourite blogger.
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