Alice Boatwright engaged award winning short story author and educator Art Taylor in a wide-ranging conversation about the history and writing of the short story. Some of the topics that were covered:
- Is the short story a training ground for writing novels?
- Why readers like short stories
- Economy, efficiency and focus – the three essentials
- Chapter anthologies
- What it means to be “invested” in a character
- How to market short stories
At the end of the program, Cynthia Blair, VP, gave away a copy of Art’s The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense to the first person to answer the question: Who was the first person to use the term “short story”? The winner was Chris Caldwell.