Was 2009 the year of the short story?
(Read article summary)Some outstanding collections have drawn attention, but doubts remain as to how many actually get read.
You may not particularly fancy the genre (and many readers say that they do not), but whether you like short-form fiction or not, it's hard to deny the recent critical success of a number of short story collections. Earlier this week, in fact, the Guardian proclaimed 2009 to be "the year of the short story."
As evidence of the rise of the short story, the piece in the Guardian cited the awarding of the 2009 Man Booker International prize to Canadian short story master Alice Munro, as well as the publication of strong collections from writers including Kazuo Ishiguro, Ha Jin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, James Lasdun, and A.L. Kennedy (in addition to Raymond Carver's "Collected Stories.")
