New issue of The Short Review

(Cross posted with The Short Review Blog)

Issue 4 Feb 08 of The Short Review is now available with reviews of debut collections:

Rebecca Barry's Later At the Bar - interconnected stories set in a small American town;

Comedian and writer Alexei Sayle's Barcelona Plates;

Courttia Newland's Music for the Off-Key: 12 Macabre Short Stories;

Sarah Salway's Leading the Dance from small, vibrant UK press Bluechrome;

Highly-acclaimed Irish writer Roddy Doyle's first short fiction collection, The Deportees

as well as reviews of the Norton Book of Science Fiction, the Best American Mystery Stories of 2007, David Gaffney's second collection, Aromabingo, Ali Smith's classic collection, Other Stories and Other Stories, and our Valentine's special: My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, edited by Jeffrey Eugenides.

The author interviews section of the site is blossoming too, with writers talking about their collections, how they came about, how it feels to know that people are reading your book, and how they approach the writing process.

"I’m drawn to writing about life’s essential forces" says Alison MacLeod, author of Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction.

"I write for the story, for what feels true to me", says Claudia Smith, whose flash collection, The Sky is a Well, won the Rose Metal Press chapbook contest.

"I tend to write in clusters.. so there will be groups of themes" says David Gaffney, whose second collection, Aromabingo, has just been published by UK small press Salt Publishing.

"My best writing comes out of love or grief," says Nona Caspers, author of Heavier Than Air.

"For a while I was just writing for people I drank with" says Rebecca Barry, whose debut collection, Later At the Bar, our review described as "a clear-eyed look at a boozy world".

"I’ve come to terms with the fact that there will always be some people who won’t like my stuff and also that I am definitely ‘odd’ ! " says Sarah Salway, author of Leading the Dance.

Come and browse the newly added reviews and interviews, check out our list of collections forthcoming this year, and follow the links to more review sites, blogs and articles about short stories.

Happy reading!


Tania