A Study of the Short Story

Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice is a classic work on the art of the short story, now reprinted with a new introduction by acclaimed author Kevin Barry. This edition connects two generations of Irish storytelling masters.

Frank O’Connor was one of the twentieth century’s greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland’s greatest authors. Lilliput Press are now delighted to continue our publishing of O’Connor’s writing by bringing his seminal work on the art of the short story back into print. 

The Lonely Voice is the definitive work of Irish non-fiction on the art of writing short fiction, and has long been held up as one of the greatest works in global literature on the short form. We are delighted to bring The Lonely Voice back into print with a brand new introduction by Kevin Barry, internationally recognised as one of Ireland’s greatests short story writers, whose work - like O’Connor’s before him - appears frequently in the New Yorker. Barry engages and parrys with O’Connor’s writing, bringing about a meeting of great Irish short story writers from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and bringing this foundational piece of Irish writing to a new generation. 

The ideal companion to works such as George Saunders A Swim in a Pond in the Rain or John Yorke’s Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why we Tell Them.