About us
Short Fuse and the Short Story
Short Fuse was set up in 2007 with the intention of providing a much needed space for local writers to read their work. Tara Gould, Artistic Director and Short Fuse host, was teaching creative writing and coming into contact with a wealth of talented, but unpublished writers who were struggling to find an outlet for their work. “As a short fiction writer I knew how hard it was to get stories published, and how demoralising when you feel like you’re writing in a vacuum. I wanted to find a way for local writers to share their work with people, to showcase quality short stories and provide a platform….a ‘voice’ to local writing talent - that’s what writing is all about”
Short Fuse champions the short story and aims to bring this versatile and vibrant form to a wider audience. The short story is well suited to live readings because it is small and self contained, in one evening Short Fuse provides up to six complete short stories for its audience: “It is the glancing form of fiction that seems to be right for the nervousness and restlessness of contemporary life.” V.S Pritchett.
But the short story is not an easy conquest. Though it may be a seen as a way for beginner writers to limber-up in preparation for a more ’serious’ piece of fiction, it is a real skill to produce a good short story and really demonstrates a writers ability and commitment. Malcolm Bradbury acknowledges it as “…probably the most difficult of all the prose forms of fiction” and says that “for many prose-writers it has become the closest to representing the most ‘poetic’ aspect of their craft”
People delight in short stories and the popularity of Short Fuse is proof that there is real pleasure to be found in having a good tale read out loud to you. Short stories are memorable and have the potential to “..invest a brief sequence of events with reverberating human significance..” Kay Boyle.
Short Fuse is the only night in the South East which is entirely devoted to the short story form and showcases short stories and nothing else. We believe that’s enough.
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