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Folklore: Stories by writers from the Comma Short Story Course, Manchester, 2024
This collection of short stories was submitted by participants who undertook the Comma Press Folklore Course in Manchester.
THERE’S A MISCONCEPTION THAT ‘folklore’ means old or ancient; that it’s preoccupied with the occult, the supernatural or the weird (or wyrd, if you prefer); that its truths are in fact superstition, supposition, or old wives’ tales.
But folklore is broader, much bigger, than that. We all have folklore, and we’re using, transmitting and participating in folklore in our daily lives, today, right now, often without realising it. When you pass on a story you heard at the school gates, when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, when you cook the dishes your parents did. Folklore enables us to express ourselves, and it makes links with others as we do it. It encompasses our beliefs, our values, and our knowledge and skills.
It is no surprise, then, that folklore is of huge interest to the writer of fiction. Folklore allows the fiction writer to shed a character’s outer skins and shoot right to the soul, without the laboriousness of exposition – especially vital when up against the word limit of a short story. We’re always told to ‘show, not tell’, and folklore makes this possible, by enriching our fictional worlds with a sense of longevity and legacy, of connectivity, ambience and atmosphere. In short, folklore gives us the tools to draw a picture that is complex, layered, and, therefore, we hope, tantalising to our readers.
The course tutor would like to thank this wonderful group of students for their dedication and enthusiasm, and to Comma Press for making this such a fulfilling appointment.
THERE’S A MISCONCEPTION THAT ‘folklore’ means old or ancient; that it’s preoccupied with the occult, the supernatural or the weird (or wyrd, if you prefer); that its truths are in fact superstition, supposition, or old wives’ tales.
But folklore is broader, much bigger, than that. We all have folklore, and we’re using, transmitting and participating in folklore in our daily lives, today, right now, often without realising it. When you pass on a story you heard at the school gates, when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, when you cook the dishes your parents did. Folklore enables us to express ourselves, and it makes links with others as we do it. It encompasses our beliefs, our values, and our knowledge and skills.
It is no surprise, then, that folklore is of huge interest to the writer of fiction. Folklore allows the fiction writer to shed a character’s outer skins and shoot right to the soul, without the laboriousness of exposition – especially vital when up against the word limit of a short story. We’re always told to ‘show, not tell’, and folklore makes this possible, by enriching our fictional worlds with a sense of longevity and legacy, of connectivity, ambience and atmosphere. In short, folklore gives us the tools to draw a picture that is complex, layered, and, therefore, we hope, tantalising to our readers.
The course tutor would like to thank this wonderful group of students for their dedication and enthusiasm, and to Comma Press for making this such a fulfilling appointment.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 25, 2025
1 person want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 11, 2025
Loved being involved in the project and discovering so many talented writers. It’s a joy to read the final version of their chapters.
March 6, 2025
Wonderful stories inspired by folklore. Promising writers!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews