‘No room for flab’ in short story world
Entries are pouring in for the Sunday Star-Times short story competition, vying for the $5000 prize. Tracy Watkins talks to a past finalist, who is now a successful novelist.
Eileen Merriman is at a medical conference in Queenstown when we catch up; the Auckland-based hospital consultant is revelling in the chance to talk shop with fellow clinicians. But she’s snatched some time out of her lunch break to talk about her other passion, writing.
Merriman is one of New Zealand’s most successful writers; her new book, The Silence of Snow, is set at Nelson Hospital, where she once worked. It’s a story of addiction, tragedy and – she notes – purely fictional characters.
The book has been a huge success, sitting in the best-seller list for weeks, and winning critical acclaim. It’s a far cry from when Merriman entered her first short story competition, frustrated at being rejected by publishers.
‘‘I was placed third in the Sunday StarTimes short story competition in 2014. It helped validate me for myself as a writer. I didn’t know if I was any good until I was placed that first time. I thought ‘I could be terrible’. I’d already had a couple of novels turned down for publication.’’
Juggling such a high pressure job with being a successful novelist seems like a recipe for exhaustion, but Merriman says it was because of those work pressures that she turned to writing.
She had been finding it difficult to switch off when she got home; writing stopped her mulling over and stressing about her patients.
She found she enjoyed the discipline of short story writing. With a word limit, she was forced to concentrate on every word, and every sentence.
‘‘There was no room for flab.’’
And as her confidence grew, those short stories later formed the basis of her first novels.
The Sunday Star-Times short story competition is one of New Zealand’s most prestigious writing awards. This year’s prize has been increased to $5000 for the open category, sponsored by Penguin Random House, and $1000 for the under-25 division, sponsored by the Michael King Writers’ Centre.
Harriet Allen, fiction publisher for Penguin Random House, said the short story genre played an important part in New Zealand’s literary heritage, and not just among figures such as Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson.
‘‘Nearly all of our leading writers have short story collections among their oeuvre – for example Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Owen Marshall and Fiona Kidman.’’
Allen said short stories were a test of genuine writing skill, because they needed to ‘‘convey so much while saying so little’’.
They were also more accessible to aspiring writers.
‘‘Not requiring the time and perseverance that novels devour, they can be attempted by anyone.’’
But just like longer form writing, they matter because ‘‘they challenge and entertain; they let us explore new ideas and situations, they make us think, they feed our thirst for aesthetic creativity, they let us connect with each other across time and distance, they open up the world, they offer an escape, and so much more’’.
‘‘It helped validate me for myself as a writer.’’ Dr Eileen Merriman