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March 2005 The Future of the Short Story is Bright
Monisha Saldanha Koruth Reports of the death of the short story have been greatly exaggerated. Momaya Press sponsored its first annual short story competition in 2004, and generated 142 submissions from 12 countries in just three months. The inaugural Momaya Short Story Competition met with more success than we could have imagined. The majority of writers (65%) submitted from the United Kingdom, followed by 20% from the United States, 4% from Australia and Ireland, and the remainder from Bahrain, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, and Taiwan. Women accounted for 60% of the entries, and many writers chose to submit multiple stories. The short story is alive! And how did we resuscitate it? With a little bit of hope, a handful of respected judges, a host of aspiring writers, and a pinch of actors with panache. In order to make the short story relevant to a wide international audience, we enlisted the support of writers worldwide to spread the word about the competition. To broaden the audience for the short story, we chose to make our Prize Ceremony a theatre event. Creative thinking is needed to grow the community of writers and readers needed to keep the short story alive. The three Momaya Press judges are from literary agency Andrew Nurnberg Associates, Random House, and The Times Magazine. Lucy Alexander of the Times Magazine says, “When Monisha asked me to be a judge for a short story competition she was setting up, I said yes because I love reading short stories. Short stories are like tiny windows into other worlds and other lives, rather than a full exposition of those lives which you would find in a novel. The little snapshot, I find, often stays with you longer and more clearly, due to its condensed, intensified nature and its brevity. The judging process was great fun and the quality of entries was high - we all agreed immediately on the best story, and had fun fighting over the second and third places. I hope the competition grows in reputation and strength and stimulates the neglected short story genre.” Momaya Press gathered the top 10 entries, and other stories that were included based on their treatment of the 2004 theme of food, into the 2004 Momaya Annual Review. We included photographs and poems to vary the contents between the pages. Says First Place author Alexandra Fox, “The standard of the other competitors' stories was exceptionally good. The Momaya Annual Review is beautifully produced and I will treasure it.” The team at Momaya Press decided to produce a different sort of Prize Ceremony and invited the actors of the American Repertory Theatre of London to perform the winning stories. Noah Birksted-Breen, Actor and Director, performed “Consumed by Desire" by Germaine Stafford. Noah says, “It was fun to make a performance from a short story, to make a private reading into a public event. There was a nice cross-over between literature and performance, particularly with a chance to meet the authors after the reading.” The actors gave lively, touching, and funny performances that brought the audience to its feet. So what do we have planned for 2005? We plan on growing the scope of our competition and rolling out the performances of winning pieces worldwide. Our annual competition is accepting entries until May 30, and if you are capable of reading this article, you are capable of writing a short story to submit to our competition. The goal of Momaya Press is to create a friendly, non-threatening forum that will encourage people to both write and to read short stories. Unlike a novel, a short story can be written in an afternoon or a weekend, on the train or in your bed late at night. A novel can take many years to write, and it can be difficult to maintain the same thread of thought over such a long period of time. The condensed nature of a short story lends itself well to modern life. You can write a short story or read a short story during your journey to work, or after you have put the children to bed. The winner of our 2004 competition, Alexandra Fox, had only begun to write in January 2004. The story she submitted was the third story she had ever written, and in that same year, she won three other competitions. Alexandra is a grandmother and the main caretaker for her husband. She has a lot on her plate, and yet her talent has shone through. So don’t feel that you are too old or too busy to write - you’re not. Don’t worry whether you’re good enough - you are. We all have stories to tell and it is a thing of beauty to share your mind with the world. We at Momaya Press firmly believe in you, and we welcome your submission at www.momayapress.com/contest.htm Good luck with the writing! Copies of the 2004 Momaya Annual Review available for purchase
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