Tania Hershman
During a past Short Story Month, I suggested five ways we might celebrate short stories. Topping the list was this recommendation:
Participate in #StorySunday: Reminded each Sunday by @TaniaHershman, short-story fans are encouraged to share a link via Twitter to someone else’s short story using the hashtag #StorySunday. Quick. Painless. Free. Click here to see the latest #StorySunday tweets.
Three years after the London-born Hershman launched it, #StorySunday is still going strong. To celebrate Short Story Month 2013, I decided to check in with her to learn more about the hashtag. She graciously took time from her busy schedule (which includes, among other things, editing The Short Review and writing her own fiction) to answer a few questions via the miracle of transatlantic email.
Erika Dreifus: What inspired you to launch the #StorySunday hashtag?
Tania Hershman: Two things really – one was that I wanted to get away from self-promotion on Twitter, by me and others, so it is very important to me that people use #StorySunday to link to something written by someone else, not by them. But the main thing was for me to find new short stories to read, and to create a bit of a community around that. It’s still pretty small but I have definitely found great new stories – and some great older stories!
Care to cite any stories you’re particularly happy to have discovered via #StorySunday?
Here are a few:
- “The Father of Modern Chemistry” by Stefanie Freele in Prime Number Magazine.
- “How to Learn a Language” by @shanna_germain in Storyglossia.
- “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson (1948), a stunning story in the New Yorker archives.
- Lydia Davis reading her (very) short story “The Fish” for UPenn.
- “The Hand” by Benjamin Percy, also in Storyglossia.
- “Fractures” by Ben Drinen on 3:AM MAGAZINE.
- @JoeDunthorne‘s “Escalating Panic.” Short, swift, sweeping. Here at Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.
- Michael Sala’s “Black Dog,” runner up in the 2010 Adelaide Review story competition.
- Aimee Bender’s “Quiet Please,” from The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.
Anything else you’d like to share about #StorySunday?
It makes me so happy, of course, to see people sharing short stories, but I don’t think we’ve converted anyone to the joy of the short story. I try not to worry about that too much. #StorySunday for me reaffirms every week how many amazing, amazing short stories are out there – and also what a boon the Internet is, because we can share and read them all. Fabulous.
Further:
- For more on Tania Hershman and her work, please visit the author’s website.
