Short Review March Issue: Small Press Month & Blog interview with Larry Dark, Director of Story Prize

To celebrate Small Press month, the March issue of The Short Review is entirely mainstream-publisher-free. We review nine single author collections and one anthology - and a bumper NINE author interviews to go alongside them. Check it out now.... and for the first time we say: Go buy a book and support these short-story-publishing heroes!

And over on the Short Review blog, author, blogger and Short Reviewer Sarah Salway interviews Larry Dark, founder and director of the $20,000 Story prize, America's richest prize for a short story collection and a passionate lover of the short story. He says:

"Cultural arbiters need to embrace the form. We have to stop treating short story collections like they're medicine and underscore the pleasures of reading them. I'd like to see people like Oprah Winfrey and Richard and Judy (do I have that right?) choose short story collections for their book clubs. We have a National Endowment for the Arts Program in the U.S. called the Big Read, but so far they've only chosen novels. They should mix in some story collections. Novels dominate our book awards, which is one reason we created The Story Prize. Still, I'd like to see more short story collections make the short lists and win those awards.

And do you know what it would do for short fiction if Barack Obama was seen carrying around a story collection instead of a wonky policy tome?"

Now, what a great idea! Let's all send him a short story collection...the short story, ideal to read in those few minutes between passing major legislation, inspiring the nation and pulling troops out or sending them in. Thanks for the suggestion, Larry! Read the whole interview here.