New Zealand Short Fiction

New Zealanders, writers and readers, seem especially keen on short fiction with a dozen or more volumes being published here every year.
The four latest to come to my attention are:

THE BEST NEW ZEALAND FICTION VOLUME 5
Edited by Owen Marshall – Random House - $34.99

THE NEW ZEALAND BOOK OF THE BEACH 2
Selected & introduced by Graeme Lay
David Ling Publishing - $34.99

FORBIDDEN CITIES
A Short Story Collection
Penguin Books - $28

OWEN MARSHALL
Selected Stories
Edited by Vincent O’Sullivan
Random House $39.99

The first two are collections featuring various authors totaling around 20 stories in each.

The Best New Zealand Fiction clearly comes from a winning formula as this is number five in the series and Owen Marshall follows Fiona Kidman and Fiona Farrell as editor. Owen Marshall has provided and interesting introduction to the volume explaining the process by which he has made his choice. And at the end of the book there are lists of the authors whose work appeared in the first four volumes and it is fascinating to obersve the commonality in these lists. An excellent snapshot of the contemporary short story scene in NZ.








The New Zealand Book of the Beach 2 is somewhat different in that the stories are all stories inspired by the beach and the sea.
Publisher David Ling and editor Graeme Lay were sufficiently encouraged by the positive response of readers and reviewers to the first New Zealand Book of the Beach to present us with volume two. Some of the stories have been written especially for this new collection while others have been garnered from previously published collections. As Graeme Lay says in his introduction volume two “continues the celebration of the unique role the beach plays in New Zealand’s physical, social and literary consciousness” And I love the cover image featuring “Sunbather” by Tony Ogle 2007.

Forbidden Cities is ex-pat New Zealand novelist Paula Morris’ first collection of short fiction and she has done us proud with stories set in Auckland, Los Angeles, Shanghai, London, Budapest, New York and New Orleans. Morris is something of a jet-setter with frequent trips from her home in the southern U.S. across both the Atlantic and the Pacific. She is no newcomer to short fiction having had many stories broadcast and published in various literary journals and magazines but this is her first collection, I am sure it will not be her last.
The stories, as you would expect from an author with a reputation for narrative and characterization, are sharp and insightful, funny and sad, and without exception entertaining.
(The Bookman interviewed Morris yesterday and that interview appears elsewhere on Beatties Book Blog today).

Owen Marshall Selected Stories brings together 60 of Marshall’s best as selected by Vincent O’Sullivan who starts his thoughtful eight page introduction with these words:
Even when a publisher allows you sixty as a round number, to choose the “best” stories from a writer you greatly admire can turn out to be a tall order.
I can believe that but O’Sullivan has pulled off the challenge with style giving us a fine selection of stories from the past 30 years from the man rated our most celebrated and loved contemporary short story writer.
This is a bumper collection running to more than 600 pages and featuring on the cover a gorgeous Grahame Sydney painting, Cookhouse 2001; altogether a delicious package that will make a handsome addition to the home library.