Shanghai July 13 – A reading party of short stories was opening to public at Minsheng Art Museum last night at 7:00. Five world famous short story writers shared with Shanghai citizens by reading their works.
The reading party was the prelude of 14th International Conference on the Short Story in English (ICSSE), which is held from July 13 to July 16 at East China Normal University (ECNU). The theme of the conference is: “Influence and Confluence in the Short Story: East and West”.
This will be the first Asian venue for the conference. Over 200 famous writers and scholars from nearly 20 countries will take part in the conference, of which 110 are Chinese and 90 are foreigners. The important writers attending yesterday’s reading included Clark Blaise – Canadian-American author of 20 books, director of the International Writing Program at Concordia University of Iowa, founder of graduate writing program at Concordia University in Montreal, Robert Olen Butler – author of 16 novels and 6 volumes of short stories, 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, Gish Jen – whose stories appeared four times in The Best American Short Stories, Bharati Mukherjee – author of 8 novels and two collections of short stories and Li Yiyun – author of two collections of short stories, Granta’s best American novelist under 35. Other important writers includes Billy O’Callaghan, Yu Hua, Bi Feiyu, Su Tong, Fang Fang, Li Er, Zhao Mei, Xu kun, Sun Ganlu, Lu Nei, etc.
The 14th ICSSE is held by Shanghai Press & Publication Administration, Shanghai Writers’ Association and East China Normal University. The conference will bring writers of fiction in English (Irish, British, American, Canadian, Australian, Caribbean, South-African, Indian, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, etc.) and writers who have had their work translated into English together with scholars of the short story, and all will join in reading sessions, roundtable discussions and panels, including ones devoted to translation.
The 14th International Conference on the Short Story in English will also host a number of sessions, both in the more traditional format (with presentation of papers) and in other formats involving performance, dance, art, films, etc., having in mind that the form of the short story is not necessarily confined to the limits of the written page but may open up to manifold fields of expression.