Ana García-Soriano

I work in the fields of gender studies, postcolonial anglophone literature, and contemporary black British short stories. 

I completed my PhD in the School of English at the University of Leeds. My ‘la Caixa’ Foundation funded thesis explored ‘minor’ articulations of intimacy in the short stories of Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay and Bernardine Evaristo. I received my MA in English Literature (Modern and Contemporary pathway) from the University of Leeds, which was funded by the Faculty of Arts, Huminites and Cultures. I also hold a degree in English from the University of Alicante, where I was awarded the ‘Extraordinary End of Studies Prize’. My longstanding interest in contemporary women’s writing was sparked through a collaborative research fellowship (“Beca de colaboración 2017–2018”) at the University of Alicante, funded by The Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. 

As a LAHRI Visiting Fellow, I will be developing my first monograph which draws on and expands my doctoral research. My study is the first full-length monograph which solely focuses on contemporary short stories by black British women. The examination of the black British short story is often neglected in studies focusing on the British short story or black British literature. This book answers to, mobilises and identifies the critical possibilities which Lauren Berlant’s ‘minor intimacies’ (2000:5) open for the reformulation of intimacy. In response, my study asks: What are the ‘minor’ possibilities for intimacy imagined in the short stories by black British women? I use textual literary analysis of critically overlooked short stories, short story collections and short story cycles to establish and expand a literary canon surrounding the black British short story.  

I have published articles in Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, in the Journal of the Short Story in English, and a chapter in an edited collection on Jackie Kay entitled Jackie Kay: Critical Essays (Routledge: forthcoming in 2025). I was the guest editor of three Special Issues of Journal of the Short Story in English and Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, collaborating with scholars from the University of Manchester and the University of Warwick.  

I am currently the ‘Writing Mentor’ (2023-2025) in the School of English. I work closely with undergraduate and postgraduate students to help them engage with and learn from their essay feedback through inclusive, personalised and accessible individual sessions. I am also the Social Media Editor of the literary magazine The Manchester Review, and part of the Communication Team of The European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR).  

Publications

Book chapter

García-Soriano, Ana.  “Liminality and Intimacy in Jackie Kay’s Wish I Was Here.” Jackie Kay: Critical Essays, edited by Fiona Tolan and Tasha Alden, Routledge, accepted in 2021, forthcoming in 2025. 

Journal articles

Knowles, Paul A., Madeleine Sinclair, and Ana García-Soriano “‘Landscape and Temporality in Short Fiction, Part 2’: Unquiet landscapes.” Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025. Intellect. Accepted in January 2025. Forthcoming in June 2025. 

García-Soriano, Ana, and Madeleine Sinclair. “The Space Between the Stories: An Interview with Thomas Morris”, Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, vol. 14, no. 2, 2023, pp. 281–295. 

Knowles, Paul A., Madeleine Sinclair, and Ana García-Soriano “Landscape and temporality in short fiction: Expanding Bakhtin’s Chronotope through critical and creative responses.” Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, vol. 14, no. 2, 2023, pp. 153–156. 

Knowles, Paul A., Madeleine Sinclair, and Ana García Soriano. “Introduction: Fostering Collaborative Approaches to Short Story Research.” Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 83, 2024, pp. 17–20. 

García-Soriano, Ana. “Reading Intimacy, Resistance and Intertextuality in Zadie Smith’s Grand Union.” Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, Special Issue on “Short Fiction as World Literature,” vol. 13, no. 2, 2023, pp. 199–211. Intellect. 

García-Soriano, Ana. “Configurations of Outsiderness in Jackie Kay’s Why Don’t You Stop Talking (2002).” The Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 75, 2020, pp. 191–207. 

Reviews

García-Soriano, Ana. “Twenty-Eight Pounds and Ten Shillings: A Windrush Story - Tony Fairweather.” Wasafiri, no. 114, 2023, pp. 103–104. 

Conferences and Presentations

“Ephemeral intimacies and the short story cycle in Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other” 7th European Network for Short Fiction Research Annual Conference, University of Manchester 23, 24 and 25 October 2023.  

“Intimacy and Resistance in Zadie Smith’s ‘Kelso Deconstructed’”, at the European Network for Short Fiction Research Annual Conference, University of Lisbon Centre for Comparative Studies, 27-29 October 2022.  

 “Gender, Genre and Race: Contemporary Short Stories by Black British Women” Common Threads: Black and Asian Women’s Writing, University of Brighton, 21-23 July 2022.  

“‘Are we born to suffer?’: Intimacy and Resistance in Zadie Smith’s ‘The Embassy of Cambodia’” Borderlands: Postcolonial Formations of Connection and Separation, University of Leeds, 9-10 June 2022.  

“The Global and the Intimate in Zadie Smith’s ‘Martha, Martha’” (De)Writing the Borderland: Human and Non-Human Liminal Identities, University of Vigo (Santiago of Compostela), 13-14 January 2022.  

“Reading Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other (2019) through the Short Story Cycle.” 44th AEDEAN. University of Cantabria. 24-26 November 2021.  

“Diversity and Equality in Bernardine Evaristo’s ‘The White Man’s Liberation Front’ (2020)”. Contemporary Women Writing Race: Textual Interventions and Intersections Symposium, Contemporary Women’s Writing Association, 30 September 2021. 

“Liminality and Intimacy in Jackie Kay’s Wish I Was Here (2006).” Jackie Kay: An International Conference, Liverpool John Moors University, 3 June 2021.  

“Rethinking Intimacy in the Black British Short Story” II AEDEAN Doctoral Seminar, University of Alicante, 1-2 July 2021.  

 “Helping Stories: ‘Teaching Writing’ and the Double Meaning of Help.” 43rd AEDEAN Conference, University of Alicante, 13-15 November 2019. 

 “Loneliness in Jackie Kay’s Fiction.” MA Conference University of Leeds School of English, Leeds, 14 June 2019.  

“Outsiderness in the Fiction of Jackie Kay.” ASYRAS: On Potentialities Conference, University of Cantabria, 27- 28 June 2019. 

“Configurations of Outsiderness in Jackie Kay Why Don’t You Stop Talking” Borders, Intersections and Identity in the Contemporary Short Story in English, University of Santiago of Compostela, 23-24 May 2019. 

Teaching

Decolonial and postcolonial literature  

Academic writing  

Literary theory and criticism 

Qualifications

BA English Studies, University of Alicante 

MA English Literature (Modern and Contemporary pathway), University of Leeds 

MA Education, University Miguel Hernández of Elche 

PhD, University of Leeds  

Professional memberships

AEDEAN (The Spanish Association for English and American Studies) 

ASYRAS (Association of Young Researchers on Anglophone Studies) 

The European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR)