This thesis consists of the creative work Long Thin Strands, and its exegesis Strands Untangled. Long Thin Strands is a contemporary collection of interlinked short stories set in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. There are examples of various narrative voices: unreliable narrator, first person, second person, camera eye, and third person (both limited and subjective). The stories have been written over the past eighteen months. Although each story is a stand-alone narrative they are linked to other stories within the collection. Characters are woven throughout the separate stories with life-like overlaps of people, places and time. It is the author’s intention that the manuscript be read sequentially, as if a novel. The exegesis Strands Untangled discusses the creative work Long Thin Strands and where it fits within the short story genre, placing it somewhere between the short story cycle and the composite novel. The exegesis examines the method and process in the writing of the work and demonstrates the unity of the work in terms of character, O’Connor’s idea of a ‘lonely voice’, place and themes. Strands Untangled considers the future of the short story genre and discusses the ideas and authors that have influenced the work.