Reading week in Andalucia

It's always good to get away from the basically grim weather in Manchester UK where I live to the welcoming climate of the Costa del Sol. The skies are blue, the people are friendly, and even with a weak pound against the Euro it's easy to live on good quality fresh food at less than in the UK. It's not been the most exciting week intellectually, but I've enjoyed Ben Fry's Visualizing Data, and Christopher Reed's Bloomsbury Rooms has been an interesting take on the politics of interior design. I've read Steve May's book on Doing Creative Writing, and a book on Teaching Academic Writing written by a team from the Open University, where I teach part-time. A short biography of Marcel Proust kept me occupied on the flight over here, and a study of Tools for Complex Projects kept me pinned down in abstraction for longer than it warranted. After a tutorial this morning with the local estate agents on a content management system for their new web site, I settled by the pool with a book on Translation Studies which will keep me busy until it's time to fly back to what we call 'Prison Island'.

Writing Short Stories - book review

Can creative writing actually be taught? There is some debate about this question, but the number of university departments devoted to the subject is expanding so rapidly, many people must believe it's possible. And why not? After all, we believe that the skills of painting, music, and architecture can be taught, don't we. Ailsa Cox teaches creative writing, and this book is her version of a seminar - analysing the technical details of stories, then suggesting exercises which students (or readers) might complete to develop their own skills. She kicks off with a good shot at defining the short story. How short is short? How long can a story be before it becomes a novella or a short novel? There are no simple answers to these questions. As soon as you think of an answer, you'll realise there are exceptions... Read more >>

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