short story

15 Stories

Daughter Delivers Shocker Over Late Writer Alice Munro

Andrea Skinner says stepfather abused her when she was a child, and that Munro stayed with him

(Newser) - The literary world mourned when Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro died earlier this year at the age of 92. Now, a shocking addendum on what the New York Times calls "a dark family secret," delivered via Munro's own daughter, Andrea Skinner.
  • The allegations: "My stepfather sexually
...

Remember 'Cat Person'? The Backstory Just Got Weird

Alexis Nowicki says Kristen Roupenian based short story on her

(Newser) - More than three years ago, at the peak of the #MeToo movement, a short story in the New Yorker went viral, earning Kristen Roupenian a book contract and movie deal . This week, however, a swerve: In an essay for Slate , Alexis Nowicki says the main female character in Roupenian's...

Hemingway Short Story Published After 62 Years

A Room on the Garden Side is set in postwar Paris

(Newser) - The themes and trappings are familiar for an Ernest Hemingway narrative: Paris, wartime, talk of books and wine, and the scars of battle. But the story itself has been little known beyond the scholarly community for decades: A Room on the Garden Side, written in 1956 and set in the...

Story of a Bad Date Went Viral, Lands Woman a $1M Book Deal

Kristen Roupenian wrote 'Cat Person' for the 'New Yorker,' and it hit a collective nerve

(Newser) - An unknown writer became a viral sensation earlier this month after her short story "Cat Person," an uncomfortable narrative about an unpleasant date, appeared in the New Yorker. Now that 36-year-old author Kristen Roupenian has been thrust into the public eye, she's making yet another headline—this...

Next for Tom Hanks: Book of Typewriter-Inspired Stories

Knopf announces publishing deal with actor

(Newser) - Talk about typecasting: Tom Hanks has a book deal for a collection of stories inspired in part by his personal collection of typewriters. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced yesterday that it has an agreement with the Oscar-winning actor. The book is currently untitled and no publication date has been set....

New Harry Potter Story Coming on Halloween

Tale of scary Professor Umbridge to be published online

(Newser) - A new Harry Potter story is on its way. JK Rowling has announced the story's debut on Potter website Pottermore.com , the New York Daily News reports. Appropriately for Halloween, the story will deal with the frightening Professor Umbridge, whom Rowling notes is "not only one of the...

Lost Story by Tennessee Williams Published

It's about an old college flame

(Newser) - Fans of Tennessee Williams have a new piece of fiction to savor, reports the BBC . A US literary journal called the Strand has published a long-lost short story from the author of A Streetcar Named Desire called Crazy Night. It features a student named Anna Jean, an apparent reference to...

'Lost' F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Published

'New Yorker' un-rejects smoking story

(Newser) - This week, the New Yorker is publishing a never-before-seen F. Scott Fitzgerald short story—that it initially rejected back in 1936. It's a charming, brief piece about a saleswoman desperate for a cigarette in a disapproving town. In an internal memo at the time, the magazine wrote that the...

New Yorker Releasing Story in Tweets

Jennifer Egan's 'Black Box' serialized on Twitter

(Newser) - The latest story from a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer will appear in 140-character chunks. The New Yorker is publishing Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" in installments on Twitter, the New York Observer reports. The tweets, which began yesterday , will appear from 8pm to 9pm every day for nine days. They'...

Unpublished Kafka Story Discovered

Israeli judge orders secret archives opened

(Newser) - Kafka fans may have some reading to do. A team of lawyers and scholars have found a previously unpublished piece believed to have been authored by the late, great Franz Kafka. The discovery came after months of wrangling over the contents of ten locked vaults in Israel and Switzerland. An...

Kindle to Sell Short Stories for $3.99

E-reader teams up with Atlantic editors on new project

(Newser) - The Kindle will begin selling short stories next week picked and edited by The Atlantic magazine. Amazon's e-reader will offer two a month for $3.99 each, with the first two appearing Monday from Christopher Buckley and Irish writer Edna O'Brien. The latter writes her fiction in longhand and had...

Ice Storm Author to Tweet Short Story
 Ice Storm 
 Author to Tweet Short Story 
the medium is the message
Nov 30, 2009 4:34 PM CST

Ice Storm Author to Tweet Short Story

140-character limit 'like haiku,' Moody finds

(Newser) - Starting tomorrow, Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, will release a short story told over 153 tweets—one an hour for 3 days. The Wall Street Journal asked Moody what's exciting about using Twitter for literature:
  • After his wife opened an account for him: "I started quickly to
...

New Books Do Carver Justice
 New Books Do Carver Justice 
stephen king
Nov 21, 2009 10:16 AM CST

New Books Do Carver Justice

Biography, story collection provide 'necessary corrective'

(Newser) - Two new books on Raymond Carver—a biography and a collection of stories—bring a "welcome and necessary corrective" to what we know of the short story master, writes Stephen King. Carol Sklenicka's A Writer's Life cuts Carver too much slack for his personal life—he was a "...

Rock Legend Chuck Berry, Top-Notch Short Story Writer

"Memphis, Tennessee" shows Berry's sociological side: Klinkenborg

(Newser) - The original Chuck Berry version of “Memphis, Tennessee” isn't as well known as some others—by Johnny Rivers, say, or Buck Owens. But the real star is the tune, first released in 1959, which Verlyn Klinkenborg suspects is the “best short story in the form of a song...

Oprah Picks Short Story Collection for Book Club

Nigerian author writes about African children

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey has blessed the book world's eternal underdog: the short story. Publishing's surest hitmaker yesterday picked Uwem Akpan's debut collection, Say You're One Of Them, guaranteeing sales generally unthinkable for short stories beyond works by Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever and other giants of the art form. Akpan, 38, is...

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