I have only started the stories in this issue, but they seem to be relationship-oriented and so the characters’ reactions to current events are what establishes the themes as well as the voice.
While relying upon the past, The Exile of Calvin Wu by Chieh Chieng, First Place Winner in the Short Story Award for New Writers, flows along with a steady pace, absorbing past conflicts in flashback that follow the gradual buildup of a man’s resentment yet love towards his parents who have refused to acknowledge his choice of a wife. There is a tension between all the characters that is something I can see I don’t adequately arrange in my own writing.
There is just enough dialogue within the piece to inform on the characters and feelings towards each other, so that there is plenty of show rather than tell to lay the background well enough to understand the present.
No, I haven’t pulled out the theme yet.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology