A celebration of the Short Story

Mangenela read an excerpt of his very touching story, “A Mother Amongst The Stars”. He told me afterwards that he’s just starting out as a writer. I think it’s obvious he has talent, now we must wait and see if he will have the stamina. This writing business is tough and my hope is he won’t let the conditions defeat him. I’m looking forward to much more from him.

Tiro Sebina of the University of Botswana English Department and BHHT member attempted to define what a short story is in his speech titled on the programme ‘Remarks on the Short Story’. It’s difficult to peg this animal down, but he made an important point—something must happen. If you read widely, especially American MFA-produced stories, you begin to believe that it’s fine to describe everything in beautiful language while nothing actually takes place. I agree with Sebina—something must happen, your main character, your protagonist, must be changed during the story. It might be a small change but a change must occur. Otherwise you’re just giving us a nicely described picture.