Can the Short Story Survive?

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Matt Lapata wrestles with declining readership of the short story, and what can be done to keep the genre vibrant, in the latest Glimmer Train Bulletin. Here's a little bit of what he had to say:

If the [short story] is to survive (and I don't have space to say why I think it'll survive—suffice it to say I'm writing them), then it has to throw itself into the ring with these [other competitors] and find out where it fits. We should address the more difficult and more useful question: What, after all this time, can short stories do or be that comics, TV, and video games can't? We writers need to answer this question. We need to redefine our narrative niche.

Go read the full piece, or view the entire Glimmer Train Bulletin.

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