where
short story collections step into the
spotlight
 theSHORTreview
home
about
find something to read by:
blog
links
SEARCH THE SITE

Vanessa Gebbie

Website: VanessaGebbie.com


Vanessa Gebbie's short fiction has won many awards including Fish and Bridport prizes and has been published in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada and India, translated into Vietnamese and Italian and broadcast by the BBC. Her novel in progress won a first prize in the 2007 Daily Telegraph Novel Competition.

Short story collections

Words from a Glass Bubble (Salt Modern Fiction, March 2008) 

Reviewed by Niki Aguirre



Interview with Vanessa Gebbie

The Short Review: How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collection?

Vanessa Gebbie: The stories represent a section through a body of work that was begun in late 2003 when I started writing fiction, through to early 2007.

TSR: Did you have a collection in mind when you were writing them?

VG: Not at all. Each story was written separately. I constantly submitted to different competitions, journals and anthologies. The idea of a collection only surfaced after I'd been lucky enough to have a few stories hit at some respected competitions, and I wondered if there was any chance of pulling a collection together. But I had no idea how, or who, or when!

TSR: How did you choose which stories to include and in what order?

VG: The competition successes were an obvious choice. They'd already been selected from many entries - in some cases from a field of several thousand - by final judges such as Zadie Smith, Michael Collins and Tracy Chevalier. So it was reasonable to assume that these were strong material, worth including. I then looked for work that complemented those, thematically and tonally.

TSR: What does the word "story" mean to you?

VG: Something that takes you out of yourself for the duration of the read. Something that leaves you thinking or wondering. Asks the question, 'What if?' I found this quote the other day by the late Bryan Robertson OBE, curator of the Whitechapel Gallery. It sums up what I look for in a story, however long it is, flash, short, novella or novel... "What I look for is…a transcendent ability to soar above life and not be subjugated by it." Isn't that perfect?

TSR: Do you have a "reader" in mind when you write stories?

VG: Not when I write, not really. It's like making an arrow before before fitting it to the bow, before taking aim. I want it to hit the spot. I like to think the amorphous "reader" who might appreciate what I do is someone who does not skim for plot. Takes their time. Likes to find a little magic in the ink. That's how I read. So really, I am writing for myself. After having written for a while now, I understand completely what that means!

TSR: Is there anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your
collection, anything at all?

VG: Oh God yes! I'd like to know if my Alaskan lakeside in The Kettle on the Boat is anything like a real Alaskan lakeside. And I'd like to talk to a synaesthete, to find out if the imagined synaesthesia in Tasting Pebbles is anything like the reality. And lots more. I've got a crazily active imagination, and it would be fun to know how 'real its conjurings are.

TSR: How does it feel knowing that people are buying your book?

VG:It is very affirming. A lovely feeling. But (typically me) tinged with doubt: 'Did I do it as well as I could?'

TSR: What are you working on now?

VG:I am working on a thirteen part project, loosely based on the twelve apostles, hoping to make it into a coherent entity. It has already won three prizes, which makes the rest a scary proposition to write. Expectations are horribly high. The first portion won two things, at Bridport and at The Daily Telegraph. The second won at a journal in the USA earlier this year. With a strong nod to Dylan Thomas, it is set in South Wales, where I grew up. I write when I can hear the voices of my grandmothers and her neighbours in my head.

TSR: What are the three most recent short story collections you've read?
VG: A friend lent me a collection by Shusaku Endo, entitled Stained Glass Elegies. Such cool, intelligent writing. Explorations of what it is to be part of the Japanese war generation, struggling both with loss of national pride and with spirituality. Wonderful stuff. I have the Faber Books of New Irish Short Stories (2004/5 and 2006/7 edited by David Marcus) by my bed. There are such stunning writers in Ireland. I dip and pick, as from a sweet shop. I'm currently reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, and am in awe.