Short Stories panel event, chaired by short story writer and curator of the Short Stops website, Tania
Hershman.
Authors Adam Marek, Robert Shearman and Dan Powell were present to read excerpts from their
published works, and to give personal views on what may define ‘weird’ in literature, particularly
with regards to the bare bones style of the short story. The latter saw questions put to the panel with
regards to the writing process and aspects of creativity, with Tania leading the first round, before
opening the event to the audience. My one recommendation to the festival organisers would be for the
inclusion of another mic at future events, to save time on passing back-and-forth between speakers. As
it was, the acoustics reverberated from enclosing shelves, from the low ceiling and the ghostly screen,
until we might have been sitting in a silver-black forest glade. On striking the balance between format
and content, Adam described how a story can become a ‘mess’ should three separate ‘weird things’
occur in the plot; his avocation of using one such device ‘stitched into a mundane world’, corresponded
with Paul’s advice to ‘go into a story learning what it’s about’, balancing the weird element against
characters and narrative. The rapport between the speakers was clear, warm in their respect for each
other’s work.
It is a real pleasure to listen to a writer who has mastered the art of his or her own words, through
the rhythmic flow of syllables to the rise-fall of inflection. A single breath-space can be the alteration
of mood in a scene, while a gesture or facial expression can underscore the subtext in dialogue. Such
intimacy in a gathering of people prepared to suspend their disbelief is wholly enjoyable to watch –
there was something of the theatre in the little jumps of shock, the muffled laughter behind hands.
Adam Marek’s beechwood baritone carries the ease of his nature, with the sudden shine of a grin
falling on dark whorls of pathos and humour in his words. ‘Tamagotchi’ had me tracing back to a
late 90s youth when I had owned such a device; grins in the audience told a similar tale, and wove a
nostalgic path with Adam’s voice … until the latter took a curve into the unknown, the story’s suspense
replaying itself in the sudden stillness of each face, the shifting of feet. Subversion of a known reality is
certainly one of the most credible ‘weird’ elements of fiction; it is the uncanny, das Unheimliche – ‘the
opposite of what is familiar.’
Compelling and silver-soft, Dan Powell’s voice held imagery reminiscent of Peter S Beagle’s literature,
or the songs of Joni Mitchell. His work is the shifting of light over a wall, that light touch on the
shoulder, the twitching-tail end of a cat; all those little markers in the world which seem so innocuous,
and hold more meaning than can be comprehended. Expectations, reactions and conseq uences are all
done up in the sparse beauty of words within a short story. Reading real talent is one thing; it is quite
another to listen to it travel around a room. The bookshelves around us seemed to creak under the
“
Reading real talent is one thing;
it is quite another to listen to it
travel around a room