May is short story month. I was celebrating finishing my collection of twelve interlinked contemporary fiction stories—Working title, Watermarked. My main event was sending the query letters to the first round of Canadian agents. “Tick” as we overly task-oriented people might say.
The second most exciting thing, a long-kept secret, May is for Margaret! Margaret Atwood is coming to the Comox Valley. I managed to secure tickets to two events. Stay tuned for a post in June where I’ll share my experience with you.
my photo of poster in Abraxas, the bookstore on Denman Island.
But then Alice Munro died
These events were overshadowed by the passing of dear Alice Munro, one of my short fiction idols. It was time to pause and reflect. To re-read. To appreciate. With the publication of Dear Life in 2011, she warned us that this was her last collection of stories but one could still hope for an interview, some more wisdom or creative output.
The media was full of tributes, accolades, and lists of her favourite stories. I gathered all my books and flicked through them wondering which are my favourites.
The media was full of tributes, accolades, and lists of her favourite stories. I gathered all my books and flicked through them wondering which are my favourites.
my photo
“What is real”
Many times, in various creative writing courses, I’ve been offered her advice to think of the short story as a house, but I’d never seen the entire quote.
It originates in an interview titled “What is real?” from over forty years ago and was published in Making It New: Contemporary Canadian Stories by John Metcalf, originally published by Carswell Legal Publications. Methuen Publishing Ltd. 1982. The gist of the conversation is a response to the constant questioning about how much of her fiction is real (based on actual places, people and events) as opposed to created.
I haven’t read the original in the Metcalf but found it reproduced by this blog. The reference for the reproduction in the blog, Living in the Library World, is Gary Geddes (Editor) The art of Short Fiction. Harper Collins, 1993. And if you are keen, a used library copy of the Metcalf is available on Amazon.
In Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn, The Art of the Short Story. Pearson Longman, 2006 “What is Real” is partially reproduced as a craft essay, “How I write short stories.” It follows the 1974 story, “How I Met My Husband.” And further down the rabbit hole, this is attributed to the Metcalf source.
Many of you will recognize John Metcalf as the grandfather of the Canadian short story. His recent book Off the Record is a compilation of craft essays that includes several authors who have inspired my work—Caroline Adderson, Cynthia Flood, Shaena Lambert and Kathy Page.
my photo
“It’s more like a house” An excerpt from “What is real?”
“I will start by explaining how I read stories written by other people… It’s more like a house. Everybody knows what a house does, how it encloses space and makes connections between one enclosed space and another and presents what is outside in a new way. This is the nearest I can come to explaining what a story does for me, and what I want my stories to do for other people. … I’ve got to make, I’ve got to build up, a house, a story, to fit around the indescribable feeling that is the soul of the story…”
The soul of the story. There’s something to think about. And I think that’s why I return to her stories. To feel those indescribable feelings and to examine the craft. “How did she do that?”
A few of my favourite stories
In no particular order:
The Children Stay
Silence
Miles City, Montana
What is remembered
Red Dress – 1946