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Seren Short Stories
New Welsh Short Stories
The best of contemporary Welsh short-story writing, New Welsh Short Stories offers a wide-ranging view of a country from new and established writers including Stevie Davies, Trezza Azzopardi, Joe Dunthorne, Cynan Jones, Deborah Kay Davies and Rachel Trezise. Stories range from the personal to the universal; from the streets of urban south Wales to the wilder reaches of small town and countryside; from film sets to the limits of time and space.
Other authors include Joao Morais, Zillah Bethell, Sarah Coles, Tyler Keevil, Jo Mazelis, Kate Hamer, Mary-Ann Constantine, Tom Morris, Maria Donovan, Robert Minhinnick, Carys Davies and Holly Múller.
Other authors include Joao Morais, Zillah Bethell, Sarah Coles, Tyler Keevil, Jo Mazelis, Kate Hamer, Mary-Ann Constantine, Tom Morris, Maria Donovan, Robert Minhinnick, Carys Davies and Holly Múller.
- GenresShort Stories
200 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2015
2 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Maria Donovan
11 books8 followersThe Chicken Soup Murder is Maria Donovan's first novel and grew from a desire to see bereavement from angles other than her own. It brings a touch of humour with a child's account of what happens to the adults around him. It's also a realistic view of what he can do about an unsolved and unrecognised murder and how he and his best friend cope with loss.
Maria Donovan is from Dorset and spends equal time (emotionally if not physically) in the Netherlands, Wales and some imaginary places.
Maria Donovan is from Dorset and spends equal time (emotionally if not physically) in the Netherlands, Wales and some imaginary places.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 25, 2021
Recommend: Night Start (Keevil), Pulling Out (Gramich), Learning to Say (Donovan), On the Inside (Azzopardi), Mr Philip (Davies)
May 16, 2015
The editors of New Welsh Short Stories had only two criteria, that the writer should be born or living in Wales and that the work should be originally in English. The resulting collection of nineteen stories has a wide range of themes, locations and even lengths.
There is a strong emphasis on realism. Often the stories focus on the poor or excluded. In ‘Yes Kung Fu’ by Joâo Morais the narrator becomes comically embroiled in helping a chaotic man back to his carer, disrupting the precarious order in his own life.
In ‘Rising-Falling’ by Joe Dunthorne a physics professor falls in love with a woman on the internet and travels to meet her. The author challenges the apparent predictability of the story head on through the unique voice and insights of the narrator.
Other stories are more playful with form. Among these I liked ‘A Letter from Wales’ by Cynan Jones, an odd account of a nineteenth-century researcher into children afflicted by mysterious bites, complete with diagrams.
‘Liar’s Sonnet’ by Zillah Bethell gives a haunting, childlike voice to Einstein’s mysterious daughter, Lieserl. In ‘John Henry’ by Mary-Ann Constantine, a man in crisis finds his life disrupted by visions and fragments of song.
My favourite is ‘17’ by Thomas Morris, the story of a seventeen-year-old told in seventeen short chapters. He feels his life escalate out of control as he negotiates arrest, a rampaging neighbour and wrestling women. And there’s a castle. This is Wales after all.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
There is a strong emphasis on realism. Often the stories focus on the poor or excluded. In ‘Yes Kung Fu’ by Joâo Morais the narrator becomes comically embroiled in helping a chaotic man back to his carer, disrupting the precarious order in his own life.
In ‘Rising-Falling’ by Joe Dunthorne a physics professor falls in love with a woman on the internet and travels to meet her. The author challenges the apparent predictability of the story head on through the unique voice and insights of the narrator.
Other stories are more playful with form. Among these I liked ‘A Letter from Wales’ by Cynan Jones, an odd account of a nineteenth-century researcher into children afflicted by mysterious bites, complete with diagrams.
‘Liar’s Sonnet’ by Zillah Bethell gives a haunting, childlike voice to Einstein’s mysterious daughter, Lieserl. In ‘John Henry’ by Mary-Ann Constantine, a man in crisis finds his life disrupted by visions and fragments of song.
My favourite is ‘17’ by Thomas Morris, the story of a seventeen-year-old told in seventeen short chapters. He feels his life escalate out of control as he negotiates arrest, a rampaging neighbour and wrestling women. And there’s a castle. This is Wales after all.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
March 27, 2017
The reason I have not given this collection any stars is because one of my short stories, 'Learning to Say До Свидания', is in it. So I'm not going to review it either other than to say I particularly enjoyed the stories 'Night-start' by Tyler Keevil and 'The Bare-chested Adventurer' by Holly Muller.
'Enjoyment' is not very lit.crit. is it?
Good.
PS. It was balm to the soul to read short stories like this after reading all of Remembrance of Things Past this spring and summer. I have learned from them all - the short and the long.
'Enjoyment' is not very lit.crit. is it?
Good.
PS. It was balm to the soul to read short stories like this after reading all of Remembrance of Things Past this spring and summer. I have learned from them all - the short and the long.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews