New writing FUR Guest Editor LINDA GRANT introduces her pick of poetry and prose on the theme of fur WHEN I think of fur what comes to mind is mink, ocelot, sable, fox, Persian broadtail; stoles, coats, hats and tippets, but apparently I am in a tiny minority. For most of the hopeful contributors this month, fur means cats and muffs (though not the kind in which Victorian ladies kept their hands warm). The success of the anti-fur trade campaign is demonstrated by these stories and poems: fur barely exists in the popular consciousness as a fashion item and the few who wrote about fur as something you wear explored the relationship with their mothers’ coats rather than their own. Were Mslexia published in Italy or France or America, where fur continues to be bound up with the femininity of women rich enough to own a coat or jacket, the entries might have been very different. Like most writers, it is unusual for me to see and judge the unpublished work of others. Few of us routinely expose our stuff to our friends and so it was a revelation to see the very wide range of talent, ambition, flair and imagination in the 70 or so entries that were passed on to me. Inevitably, the best of these pieces were the best because of the quality of the writing rather than for a unique perspective on the subject matter. But after an afternoon’s reading I found my definition of fur stretching off in every conceivable direction, and seeing the hairs on a broad bean in Lucy Aphramor’s poem ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ as the bean’s own fur coats showed where an inventive and imaginative writer can take a subject. The difficulty for those who submitted prose is that they were inevitably constrained to write short stories, a not particularly easy form. Almost everyone starts their writing career with a short story for the simple reason that it’s... well, short, and the full-length novel seems to require an ambition and level of experience which many feel they don’t yet have. Some of the entries really didn’t work as short stories at all. Too many were anecdotes or evidence of writers overly fascinated by themselves, their cats and their pubic hair, and too little interested in the world around them. For the complete essay, and for Linda's full selection of poetry and prose on the theme of fur, read issue 7 • Subscribe! Read a short story chosen by Linda Grant: Esmeralda by Susan Davis For more on LINDA GRANT, go to www.lindagrant.co.uk
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