Showing posts with label Ali Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ali Smith. Show all posts

Monday, 4 June 2012

the first person and other stories by Ali Smith

Goodreads link
I love, love, love short stories. I love writing them; I love reading them. Over the years, I've had a few published, although they are probably all long forgotten now :-(

It's not quite so easy to find good collections to read, though. As a result I grab them wherever I can and hope for the best. When I picked up this Ali Smith collection, I hadn't read her novels but I knew her name.

These stories are an experiment in viewpoint - many of them are written in the second person, which is why I picked it for today's recommendation. (If you don't know, I'm highlighting books which have influenced me in some way - these posts are not intended to be book reviews.)

The second person viewpoint interested me because I'd already had my story That Sadie Thing published - a story written partly in second person. It's a viewpoint that challenges the writer - fingers crossed that I got it right, then! As with anything, when done well you hardly notice that the story is being written in an unconventional way; when done badly, it's the only thing you notice!

Have you read Ali Smith's short stories or novels? Have you written a story is second person? Do you enjoy reading stories written in second?




Wednesday, 21 December 2011

National Short Story Day - 22nd December

This is just a quickie post. I'm just not getting to my laptop much at the moment, for all the obvious reasons.

The 22nd has been declared National Short Story Day by Arts Council England and Creative Scotland.

(The web site states 22nd is the shortest day, which would make sense as short stories are also short, but I'm sure the shortest day is the 21st, so to be on the safe side - in case the dates have been messed up somewhere - I'm posting this today! If I'm wrong, then I'm simply giving you a day's notice.)

Check out the website, listen to some short stories, follow some links, grab your favourite short story collection and read. I'd love to hear who your favourite short story writers are and what your favourite story/collection is. Mine is Margaret Atwood, and my favourite collection is Ali Smith's The First Person.

In case this is my last post before Christmas: