The Long and Short of It: Writing Short Fiction and Shorter Fiction
András Petocz decribes the conditions that determine whether a piece of writing will be prose or poetry, and identifies “shorter fiction” as a hybrid of the two forms. Mahmoud Shuqair analyzes the history of modern fiction and posits that the form of the novel is the epic of the European middle class, and the short story is a “reflection of the ordinary man.” He describes cultural conditions, such as instability and ambiguity, which the experimental shorter story can evoke, and reflects on how and why he writes short fiction. A Q&A session follows.
In: International Writing Program Archive
Authors: András Petőcz , Mahmoud Shuqair
Date Recorded: September 23, 1998
Program: --
Format: discussion
Contributors: Steve Ungar
Topics: Fiction writing; genres of modern fiction; publishing industry