My name is Christopher Marcus and I’m the creator of a handful of linked short story / short story cycle projects – one of which you have stumbled upon here.
If you have arrived here of your own free will you probably have at least some idea of what a linked short story collection / short story cycle is, but just in case allow me to quote Forrest Ingram, who was the first modern writer to name and analyze the form:
“a short story cycle [is] a book of short stories so linked to each other by their author that the reader’s successive experience on various levels of the pattern of the whole significantly modifies his experience of each of its component parts”
– Ingram, Forrest L. Representative Short Story Cycles of the Twentieth Century. The Hague: Mouton, 1971, p. 19.
I have read lots of definitions of short story cycles and to be honest this one – the very first – is still as good as it gets for me. There is room for plenty of discussion, though, but that’s for another of my websites.
So. Now that that’s cleared up … here’s a wee bit more about boring ol’ me:
I am an independent artist and researcher, who originally graduated with a Master’s Thesis in Strategic Communications from Roskilde University in Denmark, but since then I fell into the rabbit hole of writing creatively. In the last 10 years, I have written mostly contemporary short story cycles and gotten ever more fascinated by the form. The page you see before you is an overview of all my projects in this regard!
First up is linkedshortstories.com which is intended to list all the linked short story collections I know of – with a presentation and generally valuable links to more information about the collection.
Until it gets more off the ground, feel free to follow me on Goodreads where I already have three big lists of linked short stories: List I and List II and List III.
You may also enjoy my Goodreads group “Lovers of linked short stories” (it is at the time of writing – Feb 2023 – just getting started, but do drop by!)
I also have an encyclopedic site, where I list articles, theses, and dissertations about short story cycles. This is where you would find the aforementioned academic discussions and analyses of the form.
Finally, I have an online literary project that combines linked short stories, musical inspirations, and photos to tell the story of a family through three generations – from 1968 to 2068. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think!
If you have any recommendations for linked short stories (or academic work about them) which I should index – feel free to shoot me an email.
– Chris
P.S. If you are interested in quick updates only, about new linked short story collections I have found, feel free to follow my Facebook page. That’s where that is at! 🙂