Good news! I found out yesterday I'm to have a short story (called Moment of Silence) published in the Glasgow University MLitt in Creative Writing anthology. The book is provisionally titled 'Hunger', and all the stories are roughly themed around this word. These MLitt anthologies have been published for a good few years now (I first remember being aware of them because of the posters for Outside of a Dog, stuck up all around the Glasgow subway system in 2006). I liked that book, I will be re-reading it. And from then on in 2006 I wanted to be in one, so it's a nice bonus from the MLitt to be a part of this book this year.
I have last years anthology 'Let's Pretend - 37 Stories about (in)fidelity', and it is a good read - a bit of a juddering read if I remember rightly, lots of very short stories that leave you with that splintery short sharp shock feeling you can get with an anthology, when your brain jolts quickly around different literary landscapes and throws you around and boots you off a cliff and leaves you hanging and all in all makes you feel sort of tumble dried or like you have rolled down a hill. For fun to start with, then it gets a bit painful, a little stone cuts you and a twig pokes you in the ass , then you feel dizzy, a bit sick, then its fun again briefly, before you hit the bottom, and you're done. If that makes sense, which it almost certainly doesn't. When I get back to Glasgow I will have to have a re-read of this one, too. I think the key to reading anthologies for me might be to take it slow, read one a day or something, instead of the whole lot in a few hours. That should stop the madness.
Here's what Ian Rankin said about last years anthology:
Which is nice. I hope this years anthology matches that standard!These stories form as strong a collection as I’ve read in a decade or more. Each and every story has something to offer, and the collection as a whole rekindles my enthusiasm for the short story as a meaningful form.
Ian Rankin
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4 comments:
More good news - well done!
hey elisabeth, congratulations on making it to the anthology! stumbled upon your blog via 'from glasgow to saturn'. i've just been accepted into glasgow's mlitt in creative writing and hoping for some tips! i'm coming all the way from india to the uk for the first time so am very nervous :)
Thanks Fifecat!
Hi dramaqueen, great to hear from you! Love your blog. Had a good old furkle through it yesterday, and enjoyed it greatly, especially your insight into poetry and your photo's. Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm glad that you took a look at FGtS, it is a variable mag and often has one or two solid gems, I have loved getting involved in it. That's astounding you are coming all the way from India! I live in Glasgow, and I'm doing the course by distance learning so I don't have to leave the house ;) I think for the less socially inept, of the people I know who do turn up to workshops and seminars and such things (my idea of hell on earth, I am awestruck by your bravery), the course has been pretty useful for them, but I may well be wrong! If you like I can pass on the email adds of a couple of normal proper students, and you can have a chat! A couple of editors on FGtS would probably be delighted to chat. Most of the students are American, from what I can see, so it's a most international bunch!
I think the campus course is a very group based thing and a vastly different beasty to the one I am on, which is much more structured and determined by the individual writers interests, though it is a new course so it could be that I am reaping the rewards of first year fervour on the part of the university. I don't think so though, I have a feeling its a special new type of course that Glasgow is inventing(though I hear the other course has a shit hot reputation too!). Being disgustingly selfish, I chose the option where I could speak to the least people and outright ignore doing stuff I don't like, like too much teamwork or being helpful to others. I however, would be delighted to give any tips on anything I know about, like staying at home and drinking tea and talking to yourself because you haven't met a human being all week.
Seriously, don't be nervous about Glasgow or uni. It's a great city, and a great uni. I love Scotland, you will have the time of your life here. If I'm still around in Glasgow when you come, it'd be awesome to show you the sights and buy you some (vegetarian) haggis!
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