I guess my definition of a novella would be that it's a narrative of an awkward length . . . a length so inimical to commercial publishing that the writer is free to take big formal risks and imaginative leaps, to attempt whatever weirdness s/he dares without fear of making the novella unsellable. Unsellability was, after all, part of the premise and the point, and no thought of the marketplace and its compromises ever need intrude. I also like the freedom that the novella's hybridity brings, the opportunity to negotiate between the tight focus of the story and the expansiveness of the novel.
Michael Griffith is the author of Spikes (Arcade Publishing 2001) and Bibliophilia: A Novella and Other Stories (Arcade Publishing 2003), as well as the Series Editor of LSU's Yellow Shoe Fiction Series (ed. note - read all of these, Michael edits as well as he writes!).
I would not be the writer I am today if not for Michael Griffith's years -- count them, YEARS -- of careful attention to my words.
And the reason I'm MoGa is because Michael is the one and only, the original, MG.
Posted by: MoGa | June 30, 2010 at 04:59 PM