ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE EVENT

Monday 16 November, 7pm

Penelope Lively (pic right), Alison Samuel, Helen Simpson & William Skidelsky ‘Exquisitely Difficult’? The Art of the Short Story Chaired by Anne Chisholm
The art of the short story, V.S. Pritchett believed, ‘demands a mingling of the skills of the rapid reporter, the instincts of the poet or ballad maker, and the sonnet writer’s concealed discipline of form’.

To celebrate the presentation of the Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Prize for 2009, the prize-winning author joins in a panel discussion with Booker Prize winner and lifelong writer of short stories, Penelope Lively; Helen Simpson, whose collections of short stories have been garlanded with prizes, and who was recently described as ‘elevating the short story to an art form all of its own’; Alison Samuel, publishing director of Chatto & Windus; and William Skidelsky, books editor of The Observer. They ask whether Pritchett was right in describing the art of the short story as ‘exquisitely difficult’; whether they hope to help readers to lose or to find themselves in stories; and why, in a restless, hurtling age, when time for reading is circumscribed, short stories are not more commercially successful.

The discussion will be followed by the presentation of the V .S. Pritchett Prize. The winning entry will be published in the December issue of Prospect.

The talk will be held as usual in the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre at the Courtauld Institute, but please note that the main Strand entrance to Somerset House will not be open on Monday. You will be able to enter Somerset House through the King’s College entrance, to the left of Somerset House on the Strand.

Rachel Page
Publicity and Development
Royal Society of Literature
Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R ILA
0207 845 4677 (direct line)
fax 0207 845 4679
rachel@rslit.org