Breaking ourselves open: Recovery and survival in the short form

Abstract

Lucy Dawes Durneen introduces the second of two Special Issues of Short Fiction in Theory and Practice dedicated to the theme of ‘the health of the short story’. She reflects on the process of editing and arranging articles that speak to and across the individual issues, and the way in which this itself mirrors the short story’s trifold ability to diagnose, observe and potentially suture together resolutions for the challenges of the human condition, both within the boundaries of the text, and as a discrete tool for personal recovery.