Bethlehem Bayuh Attfield was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She studied English language and literature in Addis Ababa University, and worked for eight years before leaving Ethiopia for the UK in 1998 to study for a Masters degree.

 

Despite living abroad and having made extensive travels around the world, she remains fascinated by Ethiopia’s culture, history and magnificent natural beauty. These are the very things that make Ethiopia unique and have inspired her to explore writing historical fiction to bring to a wider audience the wonders of this ancient, fabled land.

 

Why I chose to write short stories?

 

When I first shared my stories in my writers’ group, the members suggested that I should consider lengthening the stories into a Novel.  Their rationale was that the short story should focus on a single event or single effect conducted over a short time period.

I agree that my stories may not comply with the mainstream definitions of short stories.  This is because I chose to adopt the style of traditional African story telling.  Story telling is a literary tradition used by Africans since ancient times.  African short stories use the basis of the oral story telling, with emphasis on the voice of the storyteller engaging the perceiver. 

Michael Chapman in his introduction to ‘The New Century of South African Short stories’ affirms that the modern short story has never quite lost touch with its romantic origins. The short story as in oral story may be defined by paradox.   They both, capture the temper of insecure societies, and outcast groups, and aim to enact and dramatize the moral lessons of communities.

Chapman pointed out his concern over the adoption of the ‘rule’ of short story by writers, resulting in the reduction of the substance of the tale to a formula. If one takes the theory out, however, as Frank O’Connor states, a short story could be considered good as long as it vivid, illuminating, lends shock to the action, grants pleasure in its language-style and above all, is plausible.