Quill and Quire

Fiction: Short

Hungers

By Genni Gunn

Tolstoy’s famous adage about unhappy families would form a nice epigraph for Genni Gunn’s Hungers, a collection of stories that explore the fraught territory between parents, siblings, spouses, lovers, and bridge partners. Gunn, a novelist, ... Read More »

February 25, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Heart Is Its Own Reason

By Natalee Caple

There’s a certain strain of contemporary women’s lit – particularly the “textural” short story – that’s very big on oblique domestic scenes, memories of childhood, protracted silences, windows, kitchenware, loss, and secrets. At times these ... Read More »

February 24, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Need

By Robert Thomson

The best short stories (think of those by Alice Munro, James Joyce, and Raymond Carver) resonate with the reader long after the covers are closed, and yield more on each subsequent reading. Most short stories ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short