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Review: New Welsh Short Stories & A Fiction Map of Wales 01.08.15


Tony Brown reviews New Welsh Short Stories edited by Francesca Rhydderch and Penny Thomas and A Fiction Map of Wales edited by John Lavin 
The editors of Serenâs New Welsh Short Stories refer in their Introduction to Richard Fordâs hesitation in claiming the short story as a national art form in the USA and they suggest that âwe must be even more reticent on our small patch of landâ. I wonder if this reticence is perhaps too cautious for, while on the other side of Offaâs Dyke the short story is rather a secondary form, on this side it is a form which has been used by many of our major writers. The publication of these two new collections, each containing some excellent work in the genre, gives ample evidence of the continued vitality of the short story in Wales.



Tony Brown is Professor Emeritus in English and Co-Director of the R.S. Thomas Study Centre at Bangor University. He is currently working on a study of the English-language short story in Wales.