Contagious symptoms: The need to tell stories and the health of the form

Lucy Dawes Durneen introduces the first of two Special Issues of Short Fiction in Theory and Practice dedicated to the theme of ‘the health of the short story’. She considers the short story’s formal affinity with instability, fractured spaces and the fragility of existence, along with its ability to heal. She also comments on the way in which metaphors drawn from health are often deployed in relation to anxieties about the status and the survival of the short story form. She reflects on the literary context of writing and publishing during the COVID-19 pandemic and introduces the reader to the contents of the journal.