Novellas: “all killer, no filler”
~Joe Hill
Hard to believe, but it’s nearly that time again. Autumn is drawing in. For the SIXTH year in a row, Cathy of 746 Books and I are co-hosting Novellas in November as a month-long blogging and social media challenge celebrating the art of the short book. A novella technically contains 20,000 to 40,000 words, but to keep things simple we will define it as any work of under 200 pages.
This year we have two buddy reads, a 2025 fiction release and an older work of nonfiction:
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is set in the early 1960s and features a young man who lives with his mother in northwest England and carries on the family tradition of fishing for shrimp. He longs for a bigger and more creative life, which he hopes he might achieve through his folk music hobby – or his chance encounter with an American filmmaker. On one pivotal day, his fortunes might just change. Check out this interview with Wood to whet your appetite. Last year our buddy read, Orbital, won the Booker Prize, auguring good things for novellas in the public sphere. Seascraper is on the longlist! In this Q&A on the Booker Prize website, Wood talks about the unusual situation in which he wrote it. (160 pages)
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde is a 1984 collection of short pieces by the late Black lesbian feminist. I’ve only read Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, so I’m looking forward to this. From the Penguin website: “The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those ‘outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women’. Uncompromising, angry and yet full of hope, this collection of her essential prose – essays, speeches, letters, interviews – explores race, sexuality, poetry, friendship, the erotic and the need for female solidarity, and includes her landmark piece ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’.” A great opportunity to tie into Nonfiction November. (190 pages)
Please join us in reading one or both books any time between now and the end of November!
You might like to start off the month with a My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas you have read since last year’s NovNov, and then finish with a New to My TBR list based on what short books others have tempted you with.
It’s always a busy month in the blogging world 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 early October a link-up post will be pinned to my site so you can add your planning posts or reviews. Keep in touch via Bluesky (@bookishbeck.bsky.social / @cathybrown746.bsky.social) and Instagram (@bookishbeck / @cathy_746books) and feel free to use the terrific feature images Cathy has made plus our new hashtag, #NovNov25.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’m a fan of Seascraper. Now, will this be the year when I get my act together for Novellas in November, I wonder?
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Just one small book? 🙂
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You’d be proud of me. I’ve just finished Tóibín’s A Long Winter,and am reading Modiano’s In the Café of Lost Youth.
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Hurrah! I’m picking up the Tóibín from the library tomorrow.
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I would be delighted if Seascraper scooped the Booker. Hard to believe we’ll soon be looking November in the face. Summer seemed so long but now it feels gone in a flash. #NovNov will cheer me up!
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What a shame it didn’t make the shortlist, but we’ll give it a bit more airtime through this challenge. The weather has certainly been giving me wintry vibes.
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Hurrah! Count me in!!
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You’re always a valued supporter!
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I don’t remember a buddy read last year, but I have a pile of novellas on my bed table waiting. It’s a little early for me to be able to get Seascraper from the library. It says it’s being acquired, and there is already a hold before me. So, maybe not.
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(Last year’s buddy read was Orbital, which went on to win the Booker.) Yeah, Seascraper doesn’t come out in North America until early November, so it would have to be pre-ordered. Do you ever request advanced review copies?
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Yes, I do, but most of the presses that sent them to me were British, and two of those have stopped, probably because of postage or something. So, I am just getting things from two publishers in the U. S. Seascraper just arrived a day or two ago.
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Great news!
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Exciting! I’ll be doing all nonfiction shorts again as usual and have a sort of visual / mental note of the ones I hope to read. Hope it all goes well!
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Brilliant! I have a good little pile of short nonfiction I’ll prioritize this year.
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I’m saving the latest Anne Tyler for this, and I also just got two new Murial Spark books that are less than 200 pages. Finally, I’ve always wanted to read H.E. Bates, “The Darling Buds of May.” We’ll see how many I get to!
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All excellent choices! I loved the Bates and Tyler and have read some very striking Spark novels.
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Looking forward to it and have my list of novellas ready to go (the list seems to get longer each year, despite my participation in #NovNov!).
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I know what you mean: I have a dedicated shelf for novellas, but it never seems to get any less full as the years pass.
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I’ll be combining it with SF month again and doing SF novellas, plus there are a couple I want to check out from the Booker LL.
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Terrific!
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[…] by popular demand for the sixth consecutive year is Cathy Brown and Rebecca Foster’s Novellas in November – a cordial celebration of “the art of the short book,” which takes place from the 1st to […]
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I’ll try to fit in a novella in November!
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I hope you can — just one little book 🙂
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[…] of them are novellas and would qualify for my favourite alliterative book blog event, Novellas in November. I would really like to write about Small Boat, as I have a theory about it that is either so […]
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I will, at least, join in with one of the Audre Lorde essays (which is a bit of a cheat, as I’ve been slowly rereading this collection for ages) but hopefully a couple others too. My major source, however, is ILL and the postal service has been in various states of partial work and full-on strike since last December, so my “saved” novella shelf is out of reach…bah! But I’m sure I have some choices here too, that I perhaps have overlooked in past Novembers!
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I’m sure you’ll find lots of options on your shelves!
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[…] the 6th year for the reading challenge Novellas in November. This challenge is hosted by Cathy and Rebecca each year and it is a month long challenge to read novellas. I think this makes my fourth year […]
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