“That’s how we salvage the past, locating the small stories and passing them carefully into the future,” a grieving mother confides in “Stopping Distance.” At the same time, she continues, “The story of my loss isn’t something I want to pass on. The only thing I can pass on is the silence.”
From LA Times’ review of Two Nurses Smoking: Stories by David Means
David Means was the judge for Willesden Herald New Short Stories 7 (2013).
Means is the author of the novel “Hystopia” and five story collections, including “The Spot” and “Instructions for a Funeral,” which was published earlier this year.
The New Yorker
We never miss the chance to plug our own anthologies. So, we have to tell you now that David Means was the judge for the 2013 Willesden Herald international short story competition. The prize mug went to a story by Danielle McLaughlin, which you can read in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 7.
“The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award is the richest prize for a single short story in the English language, worth £30,000 to the winner.”
ShortStoryAward.co.uk
London, September 12: Congratulations to Danielle McLaughlin, whose short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets is the calling card of a world-class young writer.
We’re well chuffed here because Danielle won the Willesden Herald prize in 2013, as chosen that year by David Means, for “Holidaying with the Megarrys” (New Short Stories 7.)
Earlier this year, we reported on Danielle McLaughlin receiving a Windham-Campbell award for 2019. On a roll!
Congratulations to Danielle McLaughlin on being one of the writers to receive this outstanding award. Danielle was the winner of the Willesden Herald New Short Stories prize 2013, as adjudicated by David Means. You can read her story “Holidaying with the Megarrys” in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 7.
“The reader does most of the work. The reader does all of the imagining. You’re just giving them a set of instructions on how to hear and see something.”
David Means
Thanks to Bristol Prize on Twitter for this link to David Means interview on NPR with Audie Cornish.
David Means reading and interview in the Firkin Crane as part of the Cork International Short Story Festival 2017, moderated by Sinéad Gleeson
Link: Cork International Short Story Festival, September 12-15 2018
Introduction 00:00 – 01:13
Reading 01:13 – 21:40
Discussion 21:40 – 51:22
You can read the rest of “Fistfight, Sacramento, August 1950” by David Means online here in Harper’s magazine.
David Means was the judge for our short story competition in 2013. You can read the prizewinning stories in Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 7.
We are thrilled and honoured to announce that David Means has kindly agreed to be the judge for the eighth annual Willesden Herald international short story competition.
David Means’ stories have a diamond-like sharpness and clarity, in which we visit locations, society and climates as vividly as in a waking dream. I couldn’t point to Sault Ste Marie on the map but I feel I’ve been there. I’ve never hung onto a train but I sort of know what it’s like now. I’ve never lived in an apartment in New York or slept rough but…you get the picture? Writers, you have your work cut out for you.
Links
Wikipedia: David Means
The Spot by David Means review by James Lasdun in the Guardian
Interview with David Means in the New York Times
Short stories by David Means in The New Yorker
NY podcast: David Means reads Chef’s House by Raymond Carver
David Means’ author page at Faber and Faber
So intercept a story when it stops at traffic lights, shine its windscreen with a piece of tissue paper the size of a coin, run home, type it out and send it to us as soon as electronically possible. Or whatever your process is. Closing date: Friday, 21 December 2012.
New Short Stories 