A collection’s order is like its connective tissue. As a writer compiling one, you can choose whether your stories coalesce thematically, visually, formally or otherwise. Ali Smith’s Public Library departs from the form of a short story collection altogether in an episodic auto-fictional piece that runs through the book. This series, of which ‘Library’ is first, circles around real life moments and conversations that the writer has had relating to public libraries. This vignette sees Smith and her editor walk into a private members club in a building that may once have been a library. The story ends quickly, with many questions hanging in the air, but the piece alludes to the notions of municipal space – especially the public-private dichotomy – which is a recurring theme throughout the collection. I have always admired the tightrope walk between fiction and non-fiction in Smith’s work, but the idea of an episodic piece that draws everything back to a central line to be something I needed to incorporate my own practice.
Collected in Public Library and Other Stories, Penguin 2015
A Personal Anthology 