Novellas: “all killer, no filler,” as Joe Hill said. Hard to believe, but it’s now the FIFTH year that Cathy of 746 Books and I have been co-hosting Novellas in November as a month-long blogger/social media challenge celebrating the art of the short book. A novella is a book of 20,000 to 40,000 words, but because that’s hard for a reader to gauge, we tend to say anything under 200 pages (even nonfiction). I’m going to make it a personal challenge to limit myself to books of ~150 pages or less.
We’re keeping it simple this year with just the one buddy read, Orbital by Samantha Harvey. (Though we chose it weeks ago, its shortlisting for the Booker Prize is all the more reason to read it!) The UK hardback has 144 pages. Here’s part of the blurb to entice you:
“Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth. … Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. … They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?”
Please join us in reading it at any time between now and the end of November!
We won’t have any official themes or prompts, but you might want to start off the month with a My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas you have read since last NovNov, and finish it with a New to My TBR list based on what novellas others have tempted you to try in the future.
It’s always a busy month in the blogging world, what with Nonfiction November, German Literature Month, Margaret Atwood Reading Month and SciFi Month. Why not search your shelves and/or local library for novellas that could count towards multiple challenges?
From 1 November there will be a pinned post on my site from which you can join the link-up. Keep in touch via Twitter (@bookishbeck / @cathy746books) and Instagram (@bookishbeck / @cathy_746books), and feel free to use the terrific feature images Cathy has made plus our new hashtag, #NovNov24.
“The Future of the Novella”
On the 11th, at Foyles in London, I attended a perfect event to get me geared up for Novellas in November. Indie publisher Weatherglass Books and judge Ali Smith introduced us to the two winners she chose for the inaugural Weatherglass Novella Prize: Kate Kruimink’s Astraea (set on a 19th-century Australian convict ship), out now, and Deborah Tomkins’ Aerth (a sci-fi novella in flash set on alternative earths), coming out in January.
Ali Smith
We heard readings from both novellas, and Neil Griffiths and Damian Lanigan of Weatherglass told us some more about what they publish and the process of reading the prize submissions (blind!). Lanigan called the novella “a form for our times” and put this down not just to modern attention spans but to focus – the glimpse of something essential. He and Smith mentioned F. Scott Fitzgerald, Claire Keegan, Françoise Sagan and Muriel Spark as some of the masters of the novella form.
The effortlessly cool Smith spoke about the delight of spending weekend mornings – she writes during the week but gives herself the weekends off to read – in bed with a pot of coffee and a Weatherglass novella. She particularly enjoyed going into each book from the shortlist without any context and lamented that blurbs mean the story has to be, to some extent, given away to the reader. She said the ending of a novella has to land “like a cat, on its feet” (Griffiths then appended that it must also be ambiguous).
Kate Kruimink
Kruimink, who edits short stories for a magazine, explained that she thinks of Astraea as a long short story. She wrote it especially for this prize, within two months and for Ali Smith, as it were (she mentioned how formative How to Be Both was for her as a writer). Due to time and word limit constraints, she deliberately crafted a small character arc and didn’t do loads of research, though she had been looking into ships’ surgeons’ journals at the time. She has Irish convict ancestry but noted that this is not uncommon in Tasmania. Astraea is a “sneaky prequel” to her first novel, which has been published in Australia.
Deborah Tomkins
Aerth was originally titled First, Do No Harm, which had the potential to confuse those looking for a medical read. Aerth and Urth are different planets with parallels to our own. The novella tells the story of Magnus, an Everyman on a deeply forested planet heading into an Ice Age. Tomkins first wrote it for the Bath Prize in 2018 and was longlisted, then added to it. She initially sent the book to sci-fi publishers but was told it was not ‘sci-fi enough’.
Griffiths remarked that the shortlist was all-female and that the two winners show how a novella can do many different things: Astraea is at the low end of the word count at 22,000 words and takes place over just 36 hours; Aerth is towards the upper limit at 36,000 words and spans about 40 years.
Neil Griffiths
All the panellists dismissed the idea of a hierarchy with the full-length novel at the top. Griffiths said that the constraints of the novella, to need to discard and discard, make it stand out.
A further title from the 2024 shortlist, We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley, will also be published by Weatherglass next year, and submissions are now open for the Weatherglass Novella Prize 2025.
Many thanks for my free ticket to a great event. Weatherglass has also kindly offered to send Cathy and me copies of the two novellas to review over the course of #NovNov. I’m looking forward to reading both winners!
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I think Orbital will be one of my Books of 2024. I read it right at the beginning of the year, and it’s stayed with me. I happen to have read quite a few novellas lately, to my surprise, but I won’t promise to join in. Not good at reading challenges, though I love finding out about the books others choose.
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Glad to hear it! I’m looking forward to it after so many rave reviews. Do take part in “My Year in Novellas” at any rate — let us know which ones you’ve read and which you recommend.
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Since you’ve asked so nicely, I’ll definitely try.
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What a brilliant event! I’ll be keeping an eye out for the Weatherglass Novella Prize.
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They had 150+ entries, I believe, so the novella is alive and well!
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Orbital to win the Booker! Loved it. I’ve not heard of the Weatherglass Novella Prize – what a great addition to the literary prize world.
I have an ever-ready pile of novellas and a shelfful of Maigrets all ready for #NovNov!
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Weatherglass is quite new. It’s great to have a prize that recognizes this form specifically.
Yay! I keep all my novella-length books on a separate shelf year round. It’s also good for grabbing something to stick in a bag for a train to London or similar.
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[…] can also check out Rebecca’s post about a recent event she attended called The Future of the Novella during which Indie publisher […]
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Five years! That has flown. Can’t wait for another great month of reading!
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I can hardly believe it! Looking forward to it already 🙂
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You won’t be surprised to hear I like the sound of Aerth.
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And it sounds ‘un-SF’ enough for the likes of me, too 😉 A good excuse to link in to SciFi Month. I can plan to pass on my proof to you.
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Yay! Looking forward to it!!
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Hurrah! It will be great to see what you pick.
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Yay! Looking forward to joining in (and I’ll save Orbital for November).
Excited to hear about the Weatherglass Novella Prize. I’ll check out the winners and the shortlist (and likely add to my reading stack in the process).
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Glad you’re making plans already. I’m curious: was Kate Kruimink’s name familiar to you?
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I’m going to try and read Orbital for NovNov!
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Yay! I have library holds placed on both the hardback and the paperback and one of them needs to come in for me soon…
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Oh, boy, another event. I’m feverishly looking through my huge pile to see if I have anything in it that can be considered a novella. I read The Gambler for the Dostoevsky Read A Thon, but that was two months early!
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I count nonfiction as well (though some are skeptical about that). Anything under 200 pages will do.
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I don’t see very many skinny books in my pile.
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I think all books are becoming novellas. Can’t wait!
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I would be happy if they did 😉 I’ve rarely met a 400+ page book that couldn’t be closer to 300 pages, or a 300+ page book that couldn’t be cut down to 200.
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LOL well…. I can think of a few big books that today would have to be chopped up into series, but I still love them.
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What a fascinating event, thank you for the report.
And I’m looking forward to Novellas in November – can also report Nonfiction November is definitely happening again this year, and I’m hoping for some good overlap plus picking off some books from my TBR project.
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Perfect! I have a nice little stack of nonfiction books of around 150 pages, and there are a number of nonfiction series that publish very short books.
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I’ve been looking at my TBR and I have only nonfiction short ones on there which is handy!
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My *only* hesitation is that Orbital is expensive here (and too many holds at the library) – $26 (!!!) for the ebook or $37 for the hardcover. Is it really as good as people are saying?? I will think about it! Even though I didn’t love the pick last year, I liked reviewing it.
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That’s a shame! I didn’t realize it would be so expensive in Canada. It seems to be readily available in the UK and USA. Do you ever request review copies anymore?
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Orbital is “always available” on Hoopla so I look forward to the buddy read-along! So glad ya’ll are doing NovNov again this year.
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We wouldn’t miss it! I’m glad you are able to access Orbital.
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I’ve had an ILL for Orbital since August and it doesn’t look like the library is budging on it (technically the requirement is ILLs be one year old and this one doesn’t quite make the cut, even though that library has two copies and they’ve not circulated since I placed my request). #bitter LOL
Somewhere I have a small stack of selections for #novnov and I hope that my intentions match up with reality. Thanks, btw, for linking to MARM. My copy of the new collection arrived yesterday, which might make November a little calmer than usual.
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That’s too bad! Laura F. also mentioned that she was having trouble sourcing Orbital (in Edmonton). I didn’t realize it would be in such short supply in Canada. I’m sure you’ll come up with plenty of novellas to choose between.
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I bought a couple of the UKLG-nom’s new but this one was hardcover price for a very slim volume BUT the library copies that have been on order since it was new just materialised, so I now have it after all. Coincidentally, I also just picked up my copy of Western Lane (also having waited about a year). Can you believe it’s almost November? Sheesh.
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[…] have 13 books left on my list, so I had to repeat some. I am really slammed for November, what with Novellas in November and Nonfiction November, so I am hoping for one of the shorter books on the list. Wish me […]
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[…] and I are getting geared up and making plans for what we’re going to read. As I mentioned in my announcement post, this year it’s my challenge to self to read mostly books of 150 pages or under. I gathered all […]
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[…] and I are getting geared up and making plans for what we’re going to read. As I mentioned in my announcement post, this year it’s my challenge to self to read mostly books of 150 pages or under. I gathered all […]
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[…] events! One of the “biggies” for me is Novellas in November, hosted as always by Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books. It celebrates the little guys of the book world–novellas, some could […]
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[…] Astraea by Kate Kruimink is one of two winners* of the inaugural Weatherglass Novella Prize, chosen by Ali Smith. Back in September, I got to hear a bit about it during Weatherglass Books’ “The Future of the Novella” event in London (my write-up is here). […]
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[…] in November, hosted as always by Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books. It celebrates the little guys of the book world–novellas, some could be […]
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My piles of novellas and short nonfiction are tempting, but the have competition. https://marketgardenreader.wordpress.com/2024/11/09/novellas-in-november-2024-novnov24-nonfiction-november-arcs
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[…] Novellas in November is hosted by 746 Books and Bookish Beck […]
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[…] It’s almost time for Novellas in November, hosted by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck. […]
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[…] I received a pre-publication of this book which is due for international release tomorrow, and for Australian release in early December 2024. Being a big fan of both historical fiction and Japanese stories, I was very eager to read this little novella. Especially as it is Novella November! Novellas in November is hosted by 746 Books and Bookish Beck […]
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[…] in November, hosted as always by Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books. It celebrates the little guys of the book world–novellas, some could […]
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[…] I am also really happy that I managed to achieve four Novellas. This took my total Novellas in 2024 to 9. I have really enjoyed reading the shorter stories, especially for lectures and essays which feel a little more accessible in the smaller format. Novellas in November is hosted by 746 Books and Bookish Beck. […]
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[…] a great “The Future of the Novella” event in London, hosted by Weatherglass. I wrote about it here, and earlier this month I reviewed the first of the two winners of the inaugural Weatherglass […]
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[…] involved with Weatherglass Books in the inaugural year of their Novella Prize by attending their “The Future of the Novella” event in London, reviewing Astraea, and interviewing Neil Griffiths. I’ll review Aerth soon, […]
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[…] Weatherglass Books’ “The Future of the Novella” event in September (my write-up is here), I was intrigued to learn about this sci-fi novella in flash set on alternative Earths. The draft […]
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[…] in November (#novnov24) which is hosted by two wonderful people Cathy at 746 Books and Rebecca at Bookish Beck. I look forward to this reading challenge each year and delight in making a bookstack of […]
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[…] year I attended an event at Foyles in London introducing the two joint winners of the inaugural Weatherglass Novella Prize, […]
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[…] – those coming in at under 150, or – stretching it a bit – 200 pages, hosted by Bookish Beck and Cathy of746Books. This is the first year of keeping that promise. And I haven’t […]
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