Saturday, April 10, 2010
Mavis Gallant
I love finding posts about short story writers. Over at Simone Ogilvie's blog there's a post about Mavis Gallant, a writer who has made a career of writing short stories. Lots of interesting thoughts and quotes from Ms Gallant. http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2010/04/mavis-gallant-one-of-100-women-that-has.html
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8 comments:
Simone has a top blog and I just left a comment.
Yes, I stumbled across her blog with a link from yours, David. Glad I did!
Are you saying I'm influential?
You most certainly are, kind sir! I've found some great sites clicking through your links.
I have her Collected Stories, which was published by Random House in 1996. It is huge - 850 pages, and it is not even everything she wrote.
She selected the stories for inclusion and wrote the introduction. Her closing paragraph: "Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait."
Thank you for that, Frank! That's exactly the way I read shorts. Every time you open a collection of stories you're surprised. I have anthologies scattered all about the house, so I can dip into something fresh every time.
I carry collections in the car, too. You never know when you're going to have some spare time when you're out and about ...
One of my very favorites.
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