Output details

All the Bananas I've Never Eaten: Tales of Love and Loneliness

This output develops two distinct practice-led research interests: the form and practice of the very short story, and the location of writing and reading practice within the everyday life it forms a part of.

The collection forms part of the recent growth of flash fiction as a genre, particularly in the Americas but also now in the UK. The project develops flash fiction writing practice in the ‘story-heavy’ (as opposed to ‘prose-poem’) tradition. Its research questions were: What is the relation between plot and narration, voice and character, in the very short story, and how can a story deliver all these things effectively in a tiny space? How can narrative structures be adapted to maximise the effectiveness of the genre (for example, in what ways do paragraphs function as scenes in one-scene flash fictions?)?

Alongside this focus on form and genre, the project explored the positioning of flash fiction practice in the everyday life of the reader. The extreme brevity of the form means that many stories are written in one sitting; how does the uninterrupted writing of such pieces compare with the writing of longer pieces and novels, which takes place over many sessions and days? How might the conditions in which writing is produced relate to the conditions under which it is read? Readers of a collection of flash fiction may read many stories in quick succession, and the project explored how this might inform flash fiction writing technique and the architecture of a book-length collection.

The research addressed these questions through writing practice, critical reading of flash fiction from the US and the UK (e.g through a conference paper on the work of David Gaffney), and critical reflection on practice (e.g. a conference paper on flash narration).