FlashFictionBlog

2012-01-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

ON GRAYWOLF PRESS'S THE ART OF SERIES

I've been reading books from Graywolf Press's "The Art Of" Series, edited by Charles Baxter. The three I've read so far are outstanding and from flipping through the others I have they also look really good.

The series was created in part to "restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing" (quote from the back of Mark Doty's book). I am convined that attention to literary criticism is one of the best ways of improving in the art/ craft of writing.

The first series book I read is Charles Baxter's Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction. Definitely outstanding. Then I read Baxter's The Art of Subtext, also outstanding. I'll be re-reading these two. Last week I finished Mark Doty's The Art of Description: World into Word (2010). It, too, is outstanding and I'll likely be revisiting it as well.

Next I'll begin Robert Boswell's The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction (2008). Then I'll read The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song by Ellen Bryant Voigt (2009).

One day soon I hope to get other books in The Art Of series.

This particular project drafts an important author on the craft of writing and each book in the series examines a "singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry."

You might want to look into "The Art Of Series from Graywolf Press, too. I can always tell how much I've gained from any particular book by the number of underlines, stars, bent pages, and/ or highlighted passages I have in the book. I have many such reminder markings in this outstanding series. (The books I love have no resale value-- I mark them up too much.)

See more at about the books in the series at http://www.graywolfpress.org/ (Check under Creative Writing.)

2011-12-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

On Previously Published Work

In FlashFiction-W (my online workshop) we're discussing sending out previously published work. And I agree that we should get as many publications as possible for our work. But markets that accept previously published work are more difficult to find (since there are fewer of them). Here's something I remain stuck on . . .

Some of my own favorite pieces have been published in print publications. One was published in a start-up publication that went belly up right after my piece was published (and I don't think it was because of my work :-)). Very few people would have seen that piece (if any at all). So it seems like it should be legitimate to circulate it as not previously published. (Most certainly it has never been published online.)

Another piece I published in a print publication received a Pushcart nomination so I'd love to see that one published again too. The place that published my piece was also a smaller place and is also no longer publishing (for some years now).

But it's so much work to find the scarcer markets willing to use previously published work. (Plus, some who accept such work also pay a reduced fee for it.) So some of my work sits idle and mostly unread.

One writer I know was banned (for life!) at one prominent publication for accidentally submitting a previously published piece so some editors do take a determined and stubborn stand on this issue.

I also read about a more well-known writer who says we should never abide by editor/ publisher rules and if we want to see a piece published again we should submit it without stating that it's been published before. He claims to do it all the time.

I can understand why an editor wouldn't want to publish something that too many have already seen. But for the print publications, those with smaller audiences, I think writers should be able to submit such work as fresh (if a publication refuses to consider previously published work).

I often suspect that some won't accept such work because they don't want to bother with noting where it was first published. That's understandable because that's extra work. But I also think writers should be able to decide for themselves what's been seen by too many already and what has not.

If you know of markets that accept previously published work, please do let me know about them. Maybe then I can get some of my previously published work shown once more.

2011-11-06T07:26:00.001-08:00

2011-11-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

NEW TWEETER ON TWITTER

I'm a new Tweeter and I'm still trying to figure out how it works. But I've found it to be a great way of following various writers and editors. So I look forward to the time when I understand more. I'm not sure how you can follow me but I'm available under @graphomaniacal if you'd like to try.

G. CAMERON FULLER'S NEW NOVEL: FULL BONE MOON

I'm excited about Fuller's newly published novel, FULL BONE MOON. I've co-written articles on flash fiction with Fuller for Writer's Digest and we at one time team-taught an online flash fiction course, so I'm very familiar with his strong writing talent and know the new novel's going to be great. You can order it at http://www.woodlandpress.com/book/fiction/full-bone-moon-now-shipping

WORKSHOP WRITING PROJECTS (OLD AND NEW)

Write-A-Story-A-Day Project:
Members of my FlashFiction-W group joined in on a write-a-story-a-day project for all of October. It was wonderful to watch all that creativity and so many turned out several fine stories while participating. It went so well that I'll be setting it up again in January (so we can start the New Year off right). More details on that another day. (And thanks to Dow Ford for the fine idea.)

Flash Literature Winter Solstice Project:
This time last year I also set up a special one-day Winter Solstice project for writers/ lovers of flash fiction. About 50 writers participated last year and maybe even more will be joining us this year. I'll be getting that going again too because it was also a highly successful project. More info on that will arrive another time. But keep it in mind and check back for full details (when I get it set up again).

Until next time . . .

2011-10-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction and Enlargement of Readers

Clifton Fadiman wrote: "When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than there was."

The above quote also applies to great flash fiction. The best work enlarges the careful reader and the work itself won't suffer from further exploration nor from several re-readings. I often like to do a thorough story analysis of a great short-short and I find that the richer the piece, the more words and thoughts it pulls from my own mind. It often brings out more of me than I knew even existed. My next blog I hope to list some of my very favorite flash fiction pieces. I hope any readers will tell me some of their own favorites, too.

Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter

For those of you who don't know . . . I also cpublish a free monthly newsletter, The Flash Fiction Flash. You can subscribe by sending a blank email message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com (don't forget the hyphen-subscribe)

Flash Fiction Workshop

I also run a free online flash fiction workshop that's been going strong for over thirteen years now. Shortly I'll be accepting new members. If you'd like to join this thriving workshop, send a blank email message to listserv@listserv.uta.edu and in the message section write only this: subscribe FlashFiction-W

There's nothing quite like a good and satisfying work of flash fiction.

2011-09-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Speaking of flash fiction and other small things (we were, weren't we?) . . . here's a quote from Stephen Delaney:

"Today, more than 300 years after Leeuwenhoek stuck that water droplet under his lens and saw his "wretched beasties," with the knowledge that trillions of microbes within us do much of our inner housework for us, we're all aware that small doesn't always mean petty. And I think our literature bears this out. If we imagine a work of fiction as a house, small things aren't just the clapboard and trim (though they often are), but they can be structural elements as well. A single hair can make our emotions peak. When sketching a character, that hair can add vertiginous perspective and depth."

The above quote also reminds me of Keats' idea of poetry and its "infinite riches in small rooms." Flash fiction is also a tiny container and the best of these small rooms does bestow riches on the perceptive reader.

Now here's a quote from Henry Miller:

"Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there."

Miller makes a strong case for discovering what is already there in each of us. Small things are most certainly already there for the noticing, for the discovering, for the creating of the small room that is flash fiction-- one small detail at a time, one small story at a time, one small truth at a time.

Most certainly the loss of both my parents within a day and a half of each other (at the end of March) was exceedingly traumatic, but it's also time I get back to doing what I love-- exploring, reading, and writing flash fiction. It's about time (and all that that suggests). Maybe these two quotes can inspire you as well.

2011-07-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

FRAGMENTS

At the end of March, I lost both my parents. Both passed away within a day and a half of each other. I'm still reeling from the shock and the psychological trauma. Due to these events, I'm pretty well devoid of thoughts nowadays. Also pretty well without energy or desire to do much . . . of anything. The out-of-context quotes below represent (maybe) my hope to one day be able to think again. Right now my "specks of ink" are few and far between and everything seems unusually . . . fragmental. So while I'm trying to find my way again, here are some quotes worth thinking about.

From Steve Almond's This Won't Take But a Minute, Honey (from his essay "This Is Just My Bullshit"):

"We are living in an era of screen addiction and capitalist pornography. As a species, we are squandering the exalted gifts of consciousness, losing our capacity to pay attention, to imagine the suffering of others. You are a part of all this. It involves you. This is the hard labor we're trying to perform: convincing strangers to translate our specks of ink into stories capable of generating rescue."

On the Fragment: from The Art of Brevity (Per Winther, Jakob Lothe, Hans H. Skei, eds.) from the essay "Aspects of the Fragment in Joyce's Dubliners and Kafka's The Trial" by Jakob Lothe:

As Valierie Shaw has noted, Kafka insisted that his short story "The Stoker" be subtitled "A Fragment" (241). One one level, there is an appealing modesty about this kind of insistence. But why? It is perhaps because we tend to think of the fragment as somehow subordinate or inferior in relation to the novel? The thrust of this essay has been to suggest that it is not. Rather, like the short story (which in one sense it metonymically represents), the fragment compresses literary meaning into a short segment of text, yet by doing so it also extends meaning by drawing attention to the incomplete and fragmentary nature of verbal representation. As a variant of the short story, the fragment is semantically "loaded" in a way the novel is not. Considered from this angle, the fragment is reminiscent of the genre of poetry, and it is by no means coincidental that the German Romantics wrote both poems and fragments. Better than most literary tests, the font fragments considered here illustrate how intertwined are the temporal and spatial aspects of narrative. As Novelis writes in his fragment 492, "A penetrated space is a time space. A penetrated time [is] a space time."

Screen addiction, hard labor, paying attention, loss . . . and so many fragments to deal with. Such is life, I guess.

2011-06-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

FLASHFICTION-W

FlashFiction-W (my free online workshop) has been going strong since 1998. In addition to the usual submitting and critiquing we all do for each other, we also analyze published stories (working to identify effective writing strategies and/ or techniques). Here are just a few of the fine stories we've looked at as a group.

Colette's "The Other Wife"
http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherwife.html

Lydia Davis' "Therapists" at:
http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c17-ld.htm

Yasunari Kawabata's "Love Suicides"
http://translation.rassaku.net/kawabata_lovesuicides.htm

Yasunari Kawabata's "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket" http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/bakahana@ymail.com/6

Heinrich Boll's "The Laugher"
http://www.101bananas.com/library2/laugher2.html

Lon Otto's "Love Poems"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123719736

Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/Girl/story.asp

Donald Barthelme's "The School"
http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/bart.html

Dino Buzzati's "The Falling Girl" .
Text: http://peter-mclachlin.livejournal.com/tag/dino%20buzzati
Audio http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/99665

I Am The Period At The End Of This Paragraph by Ben Greenman http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/7period.html

Italo Calvino "The Man Who Shouted Teresa"
http://des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/calteresa.html

Octavio Paz's "The Blue Bouquet" http://lisabloomfield.net/occ/193/weekly_html/bluebouquet.pdf

All of the stories are outstanding and it's amazing how much more can be noticed when several writers put their eyes together to take a look.

If you're a serious writer of flash fiction, do join us at FlashFiction-W. To join, send a blank subject header message to [mailto:listserv@listserv.uta.edu] and in the message section write only this: subscribe FlashFiction-W joe@whatever.net (your email address). When there's an opening in the active online workshop you'll then get a copy of our workship guidelines. (All writers must be at least 18 years old.)

Til next blog.

2011-02-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

FERNANDO SORRENTINO INTERVIEW

I ran this interview in the February 2011 issue of the FLASH FICTION FLASH NEWSLETTER
(Part II of II)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash

Issue 111 February 2011
Editor: Pamelyn Casto

Newsletter devoted to markets, contests, publishing news for short-short literature 1,500 words or fewer (including short-short stories, prose poetry, creative nonfiction, haibun, flash memoirs, flash plays)

INTERVIEW WITH FERNANDO SORRENTINO

Interviewer: Pamelyn Casto

Primary translator: Celia Cordon-Tovar
Secondary translator: Kent H. Dixon

A Conversation With Fernando Sorrentino

Q: I'm excited to hear about your newly translated book, Seven Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges. I'm eager to read it because I'm a fan of Borges' work and a fan of your work as well. Tell us a bit about it and where we can order it?

FS: The first Spanish edition was made in Buenos Aires in 1974, by the small publishing company Casa Pardo. Later on much better editions were made by El Ateneo (1996 and 2002) and Losada (2007).

Here is info on the book and the publisher:
http://pauldrybooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PDB&Product_Code=216&Category_Code=

Q: Borges wrote that no one has claim to originality in literature and readily confesses his sources and borrowings. Do you agree there is no originality? What do you think makes some stories “seem” original?

FS: Marco Denevi, whom I much admire, once said something like “All books come from other books, including the ones we haven’t read.” Regarding what Borges said, I think it is highly likely that – with some differences – everything has already been written. But the fact is that, in literature, the what doesn’t matter: what matters is how. Originality in literature does exist, and we can find it – basically and maybe exclusively – in how we write, not what we write about.

There are so many different ways to write! But it happens that good writers are always original. For example, for different reasons (because they are nothing alike), I admire Dickens and Kafka and I think both of them are very original.

Q: Borges also wrote fine poetry. Do you also write it? Do you think a knowledge of creating poetry contributes to writing good fiction?

FS: When I was in my twenties, I tried writing poetry. But I had the good judgment and critical sense to realize that those poems had no literary value. I don’t know how to write praiseworthy poems, and I decided not to try it anymore. I told myself: “It’s not just or healthy to add more ugliness to the world.”

My incompetence as a poet doesn’t stop me from being passionate about poetry. I’ve felt especially fascinated by some authors of old Spanish literature: I worship (literally) Jorge Manrique, Garcilaso, Brother Luis de León, Saint John of the Cross, Góngora, Quevedo…

And now I’ll say, going beyond the specific question, that all knowledge helps writing fiction. I think it’s more useful to understand, say, soccer than to not understand it. And this can be applied to any branch of knowledge. I’m not a supporter of ignorance or lack of culture, and I don’t believe in born “geniuses”: every creation requires study, knowledge, and work.

Q: What do you see as the greatest strength of Borges' remarkable work?

FS: Borges is infinitely “re-readable.” I mean, when I reread any page of Borges, I unavoidably come across new findings, new shades, new echoes, new subtleties. He is an author that never runs out; it’s as if, without adding a single word to what was already written, his texts have their own life and they keep generating surprises and richness.

Q: Borges says in the intro to his Book of Sand that he tries to remain faithful to H.G. Wells' example in combining a plain and at times almost colloquial style with a fantastic plot. I read that you view your stories as "distinguished by a curious mixture of imagination and humor that sometimes takes a grotesque turn but always stays plausible." I think both statements apply well to some of your own stories. Do you see it as well?

FS: That’s right. Since I write rather fantastic stories, or at least, unusual and surprising, I have the need (or rather the obligation) to set up a credible atmosphere. That’s why I attach importance to what we could call the story’s “scenery.” I mean, I recount “everyday” facts with a neutral and indifferent tone, while, craftily and in a surreptitious way, I introduce the fantastic or strange elements, which interest me the most and justify the story in question.

Q: In the introduction to Doctor Brodie's Report, Borges says he sets his stories some distance off in time and space. In this way the imagination can operate with greater freedom. Do you agree and do you also at least occasionally subscribe to Borges' theory on fiction ?

FS: Maybe this is not my case… I have always had the need to locate my stories in a place that I know. It doesn’t matter if I adulterate or distort the details later, but first I need to close my eyes and “see”, for example, Costa Rica street, in Buenos Aires, where I was born and where my childhood and teenage years took place, and where, for example, my story “El regreso”
took place [which has two translations: “The Return” and “The Visitation”].

When I was a kid, it amazed me to see, in the neighborhood of Belgrano, those huge and ancient big houses, some of them from the 19th century, surrounded by massive gardens that looked like jungles…. And, looking at them from the street, I thought for instance of the plot of “Cosas de vieja” [“A Question of Age”]. That’s why I always say I need a real support for a unreal story.

Q: Some of my favorite Borges fictions are "Three Versions of Judas," "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero," and his parables, especially "Inferno, I, 32" and "The Witness." What are some of your personal favorites?

FS: There’s almost no Borges’s page that is not one of my favorites. But, if I must choose, the most fascinating stories for me are “Tres versiones de Judas”, “Los teólogos”, “El Aleph”, “El fin”, “La señora mayor”, “Las ruinas circulares”, “La biblioteca de Babel”, “Biografía de Tadeo Isidoro Cruz”… Well, there are excellent pages and not so excellent pages, but none lacks great merit.

Q: In your conversations with Borges, were you surprised at what you learned about him? Would you say that Borges has also influenced your own work? In what ways?

FS: Borges was more or less what I expected he would be, according to what I had read of his. However, I couldn’t help but be surprised by his great mental speed, his power of improvisation, and his amazingly precise memory. And what’s more, the man has a wonderful sense of humor. I remember—off the record now—I asked him about a certain Argentinean poet, a very ridiculous writer, and Borges answered: “Well, it is very hard to talk about him without slandering him….” That seems to me like a flash of brilliant humor.

To what degree Borges has influenced me is something I can’t establish “mathematically.” But I do know that I’ve always tried to learn from those who know more than I do. (I also think I have had enough smarts to notice that I couldn’t learn anything from certain writers that, although famous, dealt with topics that I was not interested in and had nothing to do with my literary abilities.) And the fact is that – maybe subconsciously – reading Borges has constituted a series of lessons about how one ought to write: if the student (me) has soaked up the lessons from the master (Borges)… that’s another thing altogether.

Q: Was your first book, Zoological Regression, in any way related to or similar to Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings? I love the imagination contained in that Borges book and I look forward to getting a copy of yours.

FS: That first book of mine is very poor, and it belongs to a period in which I was submerged in a certain immaturity. Its mistakes are entirely mine, and the only good thing it has is some topics that I could develop later on, when I was older, more cultured, and, above all, had more literary sense and was more critically discerning.

Q: In Zoological Regression, you say you made the mistake of writing stories to please hypothetical readers. But with your second book, Empires and Servitude, you decided to write the stories “you” would like to read. What sort of difference do you see this switch making in your stories? Do you continue to write stories that you yourself would like to read?

FS: That’s right. I still think the same. I write without taking into account my readers. I try to always write what I would like to read. That is why I never show my originals to anyone: I don’t want or ask for anyone’s opinion about my manuscript.

The opinion of others would only confuse me, because no one can get inside my head. When I take my texts to a publisher, I’m the only one who has read said texts. And, when the book is published, there are only two people who have read its content before: 1) the publisher; 2) me.

Q: Which of your collections have been translated into English? Which of them contains the most short-short pieces? Is it sometimes a strange experience to see your work translated into so many languages?

FS: Let’s just say I have completely lost control over the translations of my stories. I can read more or less, with more or less difficulty, in English, French, Italian, or Portuguese, but… What could I say about my stories in German, for example? Absolutely nothing. And it gets worse when I have to face a sort of maze of pages in Japanese, Chinese, Parse or Tamil.

Of course, I love to show up in other languages that are not Spanish, but I’m not in the intellectual condition to enjoy such reading.

Q: What makes writing the short-short so appealing to you? Why do you think short-shorts have become so popular in recent years?

FS: Let’s just say that my head can’t imagine plots long enough to write novels (although I did publish one, not too long: Sanitary Centennial. On the other hand, it’s easy for me to imagine situations or conversations that could eventually turn into relatively enjoyable stories. In other words: I follow mere pleasure, simplicity, or, even worse, the “path of least resistance.”

Q: Of your published stories one of my favorites is "There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head with an Umbrella" which can be read at:
http://www.jbeilharz.de/autores/sorrentino/paraguas-e.html

I was delighted to find all the short films on the 'net that are based on this story. Have any of your others stories been done in film? Of those short films collected on the 'net, which is your favorite version? And, could you include websites? And, did any of the interpretations surprise you?

FS: That story—to my complete surprise—has become my “classic story.” I wrote it when I was very young, around the 1960s or 1970s, and without paying too much attention to it. I had the idea, I wrote it and the fact is that the story just about wrote itself, went very smoothly, and it was immediately published in Spanish and English.

I wrote it like everything I write: trying, in a literary way, my best. I didn’t try (I never do) to write an allegory nor did I worry about transmitting any symbolism or anything like that. However, readers – within their rights – interpreted it in ways I never even thought about.

I think this article I’m attaching explains what I’m trying to say:
http://www.letralia.com/140/articulo03.htm

And here it is in English:

"The Narrator Writes a Story; the Reader Always Reads Something Else”
http://talkingpeople.net/tp/literature/translations/sorrentino/TheNarratorWr
ites.doc

There are other stories of mine that have been filmed, and more than once, in different countries: for example, “A Lifestyle,” “Method for Defense Against Scorpions” and probably others I can’t remember anymore. In my house I have a stack of DVD’s with short films about my stories, but I have never watched any of them more than once. I’m not inclined to take time with what I already did –except when necessary, like when re-editing. I don’t feel much gain in reading my stories once they are published.

Q: Another favorite of mine is "The Visitation" which can be viewed at http://www.sffworld.com/authors/s/sorrentino_fernando/fiction/visitation1.ht
ml

Which of your stories are your own favorites? Can we read them online? If not online, in what collections can we find them?

FS: If we are talking about distant times, it looks like the stories published between 1972 (Imperios y servidumbres) and 1982 (En defensa
propia) were, generally, popular and almost all of them can be found online on my webpage: http://www.fernandosorrentino.com.ar/enlaces.html#lenguajes

But, out of the stories published in my last book, El crimen de san Alberto, there are two online that I like:

"The Ushuaia Rabbit"
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/UshuRabb852.shtml

and, "Problem Solved"
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ProbSolv.shtml

And another – based on a real anecdote – that pleases me is this one: "The Lesson" http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Less723.shtml

And there is:

Well, on East of the Web
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/read_db.pl?search_for=FernandoSorrentino
&search_field=author_id&order_by=author_last,title&type_ind=stories&page=1

There are 26 of my stories in English.

Q: What tips would you give aspiring writers of short-short stories? This question, I guess, could fall into the category of the types of flash fiction pieces that “you'” would like to read.

FS: I wouldn’t know what to say exactly. Going back to your first question, I think the most important thing is that the reader develops his or her own opinion and ability to discern between good and bad. They shouldn’t be tricked by anyone’s “fame” (most of the time fame is nothing more than a product of commerce, and it has nothing to do with literary quality), and should trust, rather, his or her own taste. That way they could, in a natural way, start to learn from the master that they themselves chose. This doesn’t imply copying anyone: no one can be copied without mistake, and every copy is inferior to the original.

What I’m saying is: we should learn as much as we can from the writers we like and that are good for us. And then, without fear and trusting our own strength, write as best as we can without paying attention to other people’s judgments. We could apply here a passage of the great Martín Fierro: he says that in order to overcome a danger or any difficulty, “rather than saber and spear / it is usually enough the trust / that man has in himself.” [más que el sable y que la lanza / suele servir la confianza / que el hombre tiene en sí mismo]

Q: Now that your Seven Conversations With Jorge Luis Borges book has been released in English, what projects are you working on now?

FS: Strictly speaking, I never had nor do I have projects. I simply get carried away by the circumstances. I accept the ones that seem pleasant and try to avoid the ones I don’t like… If I think of a story, and I don’t feel bothered writing it, then perfect, I write it. And if I can’t think of anything, that won’t make me commit suicide or bring me down into depression. I take literature as a pleasant activity, without deadlines or schedules, and never as a job or a burden that creates inconveniences or pains.

During certain times in my life I’ve had to carry out very unpleasant jobs (for example, I was an office worker), and for that reason I would never let literature (which is, above all, a game and a pleasure) turn out to be a job.

Fernando Sorrentino
Buenos Aires, julio de 2010

Brief Biography, in English, by Fernando Sorrentino:

I was born in Buenos Aires on November 8th, 1942.
Most of my childhood and adolescence was spent within the grayish square formed by the four avenues of Santa Fe, Juan B. Justo, Córdoba, and Dorrego.
In my youthful days I was an insignificant office employee. In my not so youthful days, and for a very long time, I was a teacher of language and literature in several high schools; in general, I have merited the affection of my students and colleagues, which tells me that I'm a pretty good guy.
During intervals in my work, I've tried to read and I've tried to write.
I possess the sensibility to appreciate poetic beauty, but I lack the minimum talent to write a worthwhile poem. With no remorse I destroyed the poems of my youth, since it made no sense to me to add more ugliness to the world.
On the other hand, I'm quite pleased with my narrative creations. As men worthy of belief are wont to say, in my prose fiction there is a curious mixture of fantasy and humor which flows within an occasionally grotesque yet verisimilar framework.
In general, I'm quite comfortable with myself. I'm completely devoid of the calling to form part of any literary group, of any committee of people all with similar literary ineptitude, or of any mutual admiration society. I do confess, however, that I serve militantly among the steadfast hosts of fans of the Racing Club soccer team of Avellaneda.
I like reading more than writing, and, actually, I write very little. Over a period of almost forty years, I don't have too much bibliography to show.
Like everyone, in greater or smaller measure, I have received several literary prizes.
In a word, I'm relatively happy.
F. S.

Sorrentino married Alicia Fraiman in 1969 and they have three children: Juan Manuel (1970), and the twins María Angélica and María Victoria (1978). And since October of 2009, they also have a granddaughter, Pilar, Juan Manuel’s daughter.

Esa novela ha sido traducida al inglés y publicada. He aquí la ficha
bibliográfica:

Sanitary Centennial. And Selected Short Stories (1988). [Contenido: Introduction to Fernando Sorrentino; Translator’s Note; Acknowledgments; Sanitary Centennial (Sanitarios centenarios); A Lifestyle (Un estilo de vida); In Self-Defense (En defensa propia); Piccirilli (Piccirilli); The Life of the Party (Los reyes de la fiesta); The Fetid Tale of Antulín (La pestilente historia de Antulín); Ars Poetica (Ars poetica); Notes.] (translated by Thomas C. MEEHAN). Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, 1988, 186 págs.

2011-01-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

RECOMMENDED FLASH FICTION COLLECTIONS - ANTHOLOGIES

More info from the three-day online Flash Fiction - Winter Solstice Project (which took place in December-- see my previos blog). Here are a few of the anthologies and collections recommended in the flash fiction info grab session.

YOU HAVE TIME FOR THIS:
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SHORT-SHORT STORIES
Mark Budman & Tom Hazuka, eds.
Portland, OR: Ooligan Press, 2007

MR. AGREEABLE
By Kirk Nessett
DuBois, PA: Mammoth Books, 2009

PP/FF: AN ANTHOLOGY
Editor: Peter Connors
Buffalo, New York:Starcherone Books, 2006.

SUDDEN STORIES:
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF MINISCULE FICTION
Editor: Dinty K. Moore
Du Bois, PA, Mammoth Press, 2003

SUM: FORTY TALES FROM THE AFTERLIVES
by David Eagleman
New York: Vintage Books: A Division ofRandom House, Inc., 2010

THE STORIES OF RAYMOND CARVER;
A CRITICAL STUDY
by Kirk Nesset
Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1995.

More grabbed info in my next blog post.

2011-01-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

FLASH FICTION - WINTER SOLSTICE PROJECT

I'm pleased to report that the above event (Dec. 20 to Dec. 22) was a success. Many signed up for the three-day info grab and we shared so much good information on flash fiction. We'll be doing this again next year. (So watch for sign up info later in the year.)

In addition to all sorts of info about flash fiction we also posted some of our favorite online stories. Here are just a few mentioned:

Lydia Davis's "Odd Behavior"
http://www.conjunctions.com/archives/c24-ld.htm

C. R. Park's "I Can't Talk About Butter Because Margarine Is All I Know" http://www.smokelong.com/flash/1041.asp

Bruce Holland Rogers's "Little Brother"
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001030/little_brother.shtml

Zach Brockhouse's "Roosts"
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131314768/three-minute-fiction-the-winner-is

Octavio Paz's "The Blue Bouquet" at:http://lisabloomfield.net/occ/193/weekly_html/bluebouquet.pdf

Sherrie Flick's "Silver Spur Cafe"
http://www.smokelong.com/flash/4001.asp

I'll post more favorite online stories next time I blog.

For some of the favorite markets posted see my Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter (January 2011 issue) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash (coming out today).

We also posted several collection/ anthology reviews and I'll post some info on those later on, too. The event was a bonanza of information so check back again for more "grabbings" from the three days we spent on flash fiction.

Happy and productive 2011 to all!

2010-12-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

FAT SENTENCES in FLASH FICTION

This is good information to keep from putting flash fiction into a too- short procrustean bed by countering the writing advice that's always pushing writers to "trim the fat." There's room for all sorts of writing styles in flash fiction.

I like William Goyen's work in part because of his style and his "fat"sentences. And as one who's recently read one too many articles on"trimming the fat" from our work I like to haul out Goyen's thoughts on writing-- to remember to keep "writing rules" in perspective, to remember that there's still plenty of room for more than bare bones, skinny, trimmed-down stories.

A blurb on the back of Goyen's book of short stories, Had I A Hundred Mouths, some of which are flash fiction length, says: [His] "voice was a bard's voice, singing dark narratives in lines rich and rhythmic enough to transform into ballads.... I would place "Had I A Hundred Mouths" [a story in the collection of the same name] and "In the Icebound Hothouse"among the great short stories of the century." (Vance Bourjaily, The NewYork Times Book Review.)

One more blurb: "Like the East Texas wood where so much of the action occurs, there is a lushness, almost a novel-like quality to even the briefest tale ... A short story by William Goyen is like one by no other writer." (Edward J. Osowski, Houston Post)

When asked about writing influences he felt he had to reject or throw off, he had this to say (from an interview in the same collection):"Oh sure. I had to work through them. Because a lot of them are standing in the way. We have to go through their legs or get around them or really just kind of *have* them, in order to be free of them, or let them have us. Thomas Wolfe. Singing people. Whitman. Early Saroyan. I had to find out whether I could do it or not, and since I didn't have anything to replace it with yet--I tell students this: since you don't have anything to offer yet, then *take* what they have to offer, and spend it. If somebody wants you to make love to them that badly, then go ahead and do it. Just go ahead and do it, get out, get through it! Never James-- though he astonished me. The same as Proust: those were abundances, flowerings. They confirmed me."

And then Goyen talks about American writing (and his own)...."The American writing around me seemed to all just hang at... just at whatever tide there was -- there was Hemingway, whom I couldn't abide. Fitzgerald, totally foreign to me. I didn't know about that world, the swell life. Or even Fitzgerald's own transformations. Hemingway seemed to me to be like the brutes that I knew that I wanted to escape from, in Texas. That physical bravado, that leanness of style, that was anathema to me. Why would I not use three adjectives? Why not? I was a rhapsodist, why would I cut down on my adjectives? What was Hemingway trying to tell me, what was he hiding?"

2010-12-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

FLASH FICTION - WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION
Takes place online December 20, 21, 22, 2010

Join me for a free three-day online Flash Fiction - Winter Solstice Celebration. We'll be celebrating the shortest day of the year (Dec. 21) and celebrating the shortest fiction (flash fiction).

I'm hoping everyone who loves flash fictionwill take part in this good old-fashioned Information Grab.

What sorts of information might you grab? Editor calls for submissions, flash fiction markets, flash fiction contests, favorite online stories, favorite markets, favorite writing prompts, articles or links pertaining to flash fiction, along with anthology/ collection reviews and announcements of new publications. And whatever else anyone thinks would be information worth having. (No submitting or critiquing, however-- just straight info on flash fiction.)

So start collecting the info you'll post now and in return you'll get a lot of info from me when the event begins. (Editors are welcome to post calls for submissions or tell us what might "sink a sub(mission)."

And please do sign up *today*! That way I'll have a better idea of how many might be taking part. Once you've signed up, you need do nothing more beforehand. Once the 20th arrives I'll approve you for posting and you can post to your heart's content (appropriate flash fiction info, anyway).

To subscribe send a blank subject header message to

FlashFiction_WinterSolstice-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com

or go to the ‘net site to sign up
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flashfiction_wintersolstice/

Special thanks to Daneet Steffans for inspiring and urging me to participate in this project. See what's taking place across the U.K. in celebration of National Short Story Day http://www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk/

So please do sign up for the Three-Day Flash Fiction Info Grab today. And help me make the event a huge success. If this experiment goes well, I'll likely make it an annual event. And please do spread the word among your flash fiction writer friends.

2010-10-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

Steve Almond's This Won't Take But A Minute, Honey

I ordered a copy of Almond's book through the Harvard Book Store, and like what I see (I got it quickly, too). I was curious about why he chose to go the self-publishing route and discovered that he has articles in recent Poets & Writers on that very topic. The articles are definitely worth reading. I was only vaguely aware of the EBM industry and Almond's article helped me understand a lot more about it along with help in understanding the potential in such publishing

In the July/August issue, he cautions,
"Unless you are already a famous author, it's highly unlikely you'll reach a huge audience with a self-published book." That stands to reason. BUT...

Almond also says (in that same article), "I foresee a day when writers will prefer to print chapbooks of the original work they read at events, and sell them for a few bucks, the same way musicians now sell copies of live performances."

As for Almond's book itself, it's filled with thought-provoking information. Part of the book contains flash fiction and the other part of the book contains essays on writing. It's amusing, too, in that the part with flash fiction has its own cover and table of contents. Then you have to flip the book over to get to the essays and that section has its own cover and table of contents as well.

I really like what Almond says on titles for our stories (from Minute, Honey, in his essay titled "Who Wants To Play With A Headless Doll?"):

"...titles are not an afterthought, or an indulgence. They are a signpostto the story's crucial ideas and motifs, an initiation into its tone, and an inducement to keep reading."

Then toward the end of the essay Almond says: "The search for a title should
force you deeper into the mysteries of your work. It's an invitation to
distill what Graham Greene called "the heart of the matter.""

2010-09-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

FLASH FICTION COURSE

I'll be teaching another flash fiction course beginning on November 1, 2010. It runs four weeks and is done entirely online. The course always fills quickly so sign up soon at http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/flash-fiction.html (where you can also see further details about the course along with some past course evaluations.)

I've been teaching this course (and an online course in writing haibun) for several years now. It's always refreshing and inspiring to meet so many gifted writers who are attracted to flash fiction. Soon I'll have my Part II course worked up and will begin offering it. Stay tuned!
-----
FLASH FICTION FLASH: NEWSLETTER

I'd love to get even more news on flash fiction publications, new collections/ anthologies for my newsletter, FlashFictionFlash http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash

Subscribe (it's monthly and it's free) and you'll see all the types of flash literature news I send out. Then send me your own publishing news (pertinent to the newsletter). Or send me your flash literature calls for submissions. I'm always happy to spread the word.
-----
GROUP READ FIELD GUIDE TO WRITING FLASH FICTION
(Rose Metal Press).

There's a group reading/discussion sponsored by the Creative Writing Program at the University of Toledo (Kyle Minor's site) and it's going quite well so far.
It begins at http://www.groupread.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/hello-world/

The discussion then continues, chapter by chapter, and you can access discussion for each chapter from the menu on the right side of the screen. Just click the chapter you want. See discussion on my chapter, "The Myth-ing Link" at at http://groupread.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/the-myth-ing-link-24-30/

Some of the contributors who've stopped by to comment (so far) include myself, Nathan Leslie, Randall Brown, and Tara Masih (the editor). I expect even more of the contributors to comment as their chapters come up for discussion.

If you don't have a copy of this collection yet, you're really missing out. You can order it at:
http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/Field%20Guide_more.html
-----
BOOKS AND BEYOND: GREENWOOD ENECYCLOPEDIA OF NEW AMERICAN WRITING (4 vols). Edited by Kenneth Womack. (Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut/ London, 2008.)
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Beyond-Four-Volumes-Encyclopedia/dp/0313337381/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218401206&sr=1-2#_

(URL/ link above must be all together, unbroken, so cut and paste to get to the site.)

I also hope you get the chance to read my 8,000-word article on flash fiction in the above encyclopedia. You can always ask your library order it for you. My article on flash fiction includes a tenative working definition, a history, discusses contexts and issues, selected authors, reception, trends and themes, and includes a bibliography, and further reading recommendations. The encyclopedia set is wonderful for its in-depth articles on so many different types of writing (some types I'd not heard of).
-----

2010-09-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Flash fiction got a nice recommendation at the Psychology Today (Magazine) web site. Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction was mentioned (I have an article in this collection) and so was Flash Fiction Flash (my free online newsletter). The article is by two well-known literary agents, Evan Marshall and Martha Jewett, on trends in book publishing and the article discusses flash fiction at length See the article at

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-literary-life/201009/fiction-in-flash

or at www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-literary.../fiction-in-flash

It's great to see that this type of writing is being recognized more and more by literary professionals.

2010-09-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

Found two new (to me) interesting looking markets for flash fiction.

THUMBNAIL MAGAZINE
http://thumbnailblog.posterous.com/pages/guidelines-2
The deadline for submissions for the fall issue is October 1, 2010.
Quarterly literary magazine accepting original, unpublished photographs and images of artwork in JPEG format, 300 DPI; prose (essays, fiction, review, commentary), unpublished, 800 words or less; poetry, unpublished, 40 lines or less. Will be publishing 10 poems and 10 works of prose (5 fiction, 5 non-fiction) in each issue, and will include one or two submitted artworks in each. Acceptance is somewhat competitive. Show us your best work. Pays contributor copy.

CONCISELY
http://www.conciselymagazine.com/
Quarterly print magazine interested in publishing stories under 500 words. All contributors get two complimentary copies of the magazine.

And here's a third for good measure (which is a high paying market).

SUBTROPICS
http://www.english.ufl.edu/subtropics/submit.htmlwill consider works of fiction of any length, from short shorts to novellas (up to 15,000 words) and self-contained novel excerpts. Pays $500 for short-short fiction. Submissions are accepted from August 31 to April 15

Subscribe to my Flash Fiction Flash newsletter for even more markets. It's free, delivered to your emailbox, and comes out around the first of each month.

To subscribe send a blank subject header email to
FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com
or go to this site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash and follow the subscribe directions.

Please do please do tell your writer friends about my newsletter. New subscribers are always welcome and appreciated.

2010-08-24T07:41:00.001-07:00

Some of my favorite writer quotes (especially useful for thinking about good flash fiction)...

"The rule of the writer is not to say what we can all say but what we are unable to say." (Anais Nin)
-----
"One who reads one hundred poets sounds like one hundred poets. One who reads a thousand poets sounds like oneself." (Chinese axiom)
-----
"Thus we respect the poet who observes no more than we do and conceives it no more profoundly than we should, if only he formulates it better than we could; we respect him still more if he does this better than most poets have. We respect still more the poet who observes more than we do, and still more the poet who feels or conceives more than we; and in proportion as the performance surpasses such standards, our respect increases. We range from the slightest esteem to the greatest awe and wonder according as he does surpass such standards; let him fall below them, and our feelings descend as far as utter contempt. We measure performance as against what it seems impossible anyone should have done; against what only the fine artist could have done; against what most artists could do, what most people could do, what anyone could have done, what only a fool would have done." (Elder Olson, from an article titled "The Nature of the Poet" from A Casebook on Dylan Thomas)
-----
"Creating stories is a special craft-- a special way of capturing reality on the page. It feels real, but it isn't. You can't just break off a piece of reality and stick it on the page. It won't work. It won't work because fiction is concentrated, heightened, intensified reality. It's the essence of reality. All reality doesn't contain such essence or truth, but all fiction must. You, the author, must create it. So even though you already have everything you need, you need to learn how to use it. That's craft. That's technique...." (Jerry Cleaver, Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course. New York: St. Martin's, 2002)
----

2010-07-17T07:25:00.001-07:00

Flash Fiction Film

I'm fascinated with flash fiction translated into film. Nine of Raymond Carver's stories were turned into one feature-length film with Robert Alman's Short Cuts and many of us are familiar with that film. Now I'm making new discoveries as I find flash fiction turned into short-short film on the 'net.

See Yasunari Kawabata’s “Love Suicides” --an outstanding flash fiction piece which can be read here: http://translation.rassaku.net/kawabata_lovesuicides.htm

And here’s the powerful film version: http://www.fluxusonline.com/2010/film.php?cod=14

Then there's Fernando Sorrentino's “There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head with an Umbrella" (a story I'm very impressed with) which can be read at: http://www.badosa.com/bin/obra.pl?id=n084-en

And here’s the film version (my favorite from among the several versions I found) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BftjbyTk-OU

I'll be posting more as I run across them. (I have info on others but don't have the details close by so I'll save that info for another post.) And if you know of flash fiction turned into film. I'd love to hear about it.

2010-06-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Histories

Add Mary Austin's collection of One -Smoke Stories to the history of flash fiction. Originally published in 1934 (then republished in 2003) the collection includes multicultural stories (from Native American, Spanish colonial, mestizo, and European people of the Southwest)-- folktales, animals stories, sayings, and other popular genres. Some of the "flashes" are just a couple of pages in length.

In her introduction, Austin says the variety of cultures in the Southwest share an approach to storytelling in the one-smoke story-- a type of story that's especially suited for the communication of experience. Her description of the story-telling ceremony is rich and interesting. Here's a snip of her description:

Each participant selects a corn husk from the heap and gathers a pinch of "native tabac" from a dark bowl as it "passes the ancient ceremonial road from east to north by west to south," and holding the dry roll delicately between the lips, each participant tries to "dispatch the salutatory puffs to the six... or the four... world quarters."

Each participant holds the "crisp short-lasting cylinder between thumb and fingertips, unlighted, one begins, always gravely, and holding on for the space of one smoke, tales, each one as deft, as finished in itself as a ceremonial cigarette."

Each story ends with what Austin calls "the fang of the experience." Between participants, "the ingoing and outgoing sense of the universe pulses and spirals with the ascending smoke."

Noreen Groover Lape provides an excellent Critical Introduction to Austin's collection.

See info on this collection here

If, like me, you're interested in a general history of flash fiction do check out my 8,000-word article on flash fiction in Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Writing (4 vols). (Edited by Kenneth Womack. (Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut/ London, 2008.) See info on the encyclopedia here

Or you can likely order it through your local libary.

Now, off to explore more older anthologies that include flash fiction types of writing.

2010-06-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

FLASH FICTION COURSE

There are a few more openings for my next online flash fiction course. It runs for four weeks and starts on Monday, August 9, 2010. I've been teaching online courses in flash fiction since 2002 and the course continues to be quite popular. Be sure to sign up soon so you can be part of the next session-- it always fills so don't wait too long.

See signup details at http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/flash-fiction.html

Evaluations from the last online course I taught (permission obtained from evaluators):

Barbara Farnworth
This Flash Fiction Course was an extremely valuable experience. I have attended several writing courses (in person and online) and this course was by far the best. The facilitator, Pam Casto, provided us with an amazing amount of information which was well organized and applicable to the participants. I have saved all of the lessons so that I can review them again with more leisure. My fellow students actively participated in submitting their own work and providing thoughtful critiques of one another's work. I would highly recommend this course to other writers interested in learning about flash fiction. I would love to participate in the continuation of this class.
-----
Emma Munro
I've completed in-person and online writing courses and three factors determine a good writing course: the teacher/course facilitator; the quality of the information, and the level of interaction and support amongst the students. Pam, you are a standout as a teacher and course facilitator. You are motivating, encouraging & tireless...Your critiques and analyses teach so much. You have made this the most rewarding online writing course I've taken. I look forward to taking part in more of your courses. The quality of the information you offer is excellent. I feel I have a good grounding in flash fiction basics,
-----
Liz Martinez:
You certainly are a one woman encyclopaedia (to coin a new phrase - a pamcastopaedia ) of information about flash fiction. I feel I received my money's worth and so much more.... I have already recommended it very highly to several other writer friends and family, and I would happily take the same course again because I know I would learn even more on different levels. And Pam, thank you so much for your dedication. You obviously really care about the work you are doing here, and about giving good quality value for money no nonsense tutoring. I really appreciate that.

2010-06-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

My next four-week online Flash Fiction Course begins August 9, 2010. It fills quickly so sign up soon. See details at http://www.flashquake.org/vol9iss4/online-classes/index.html (I limit the course to ten participants so I can give it my closest attention.)

More good news for Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips From Editors, Teacher, and Writers in the Field (edited by Tara Masih, 2009).
http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/Field%20Guide_more.html

ForeWord Magazine awarded a Bronze Medal (in their Writing Category) to Rose Metal Press’s Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction in their Book of the Year Awards. The criteria they use for their awards include editorial excellence, originality of subject matter, accuracy, contributor credentials, and professional packaging. Finalists are determined by a jury of judges consisting of editors and reviewers of ForeWord Reviews, booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals. It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I’m pleased to have my article included in this fine collection. See the info (and other winners) at http://www.bookoftheyearawards.com/winners/2009/category/writing/

Do send your flash literature publishing news to me for inclusion in the Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter. And do subscribe to my free monthly newsletter by sending a blank email message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you'll see how to format your news for the newsletter (where I ask for specific labeling and specific info). I'd also like to get publishing news about your flash fiction/ flash literature collections or new flash anthologies you have work in (for the newsletter). So subscribe and I'll be happy to pass along your news.

2010-02-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

We contributors to The Field Guide To Writing Flash Fiction (from Rose Metal Press) got a nice Valentine's gift. Fiction Writer's Review chose the books they loved in 2009 and Field Guide is among them (the information is under "collections"). See the list of love at http://fictionwritersreview.com/essays/a-valentine-books-we-loved-in-2009 Thank you for loving us!

Here are some stories available on the 'net that I consider outstanding examples of flash fiction. I'm betting you'll enjoy them too. (I'll post links to other outstanding flash fiction at another time.)

John Updike's "Pygmalion"
http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Resources/102in-class6.htm

Aimee Bender's "Appleless"
published in FAIRY TALE REVIEW.
http://www.fairytalereview.com/blue.html#appleless

Donald Barthelme's "The Glass Mountain" (a list story)http://www.fti.uab.es/sgolden/docencia/glassmountain.htm
-----

2009-12-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

This month's edition of The Writer (December 2009) has full-page review of The Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teacher, and Writers in the Field. The highly positive review is by Amy Wallen and I am so pleased and fortunate that I got a mention in the review for my own article ("The Myth-ing Link").

A short quote from the review by Amy Wallen:
"All writers of flash fiction-- not just those interested in trying out the form--should own this book. The essays provide inspiration and a variety of perspectives. The sample stories, as a collection, represent the diversity of this genre. The exercises, on the other hand, separate the practical teachers of the bunch from the more esoteric writers who don't know exactly how to explain how they write." (p.44)

And there's more good news about the collection.

We received a *starred* rating from Publisher's Weekly Online http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6676893.html?industryid=47159

And the collection made the Best Seller List for Small Press Distribution http://www.spdbooks.org/pages/bestsellers/nonfiction/default.aspx

See a recent review by Jake Freivald, editor of FlashFictionOnline http://www.flashfictiononline.com/c20090903-review-field-guide-writing-flash-fiction-jake-freivald.html

Order your copy at http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/Field%20Guide_more.html

2009-07-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

Review Snips for Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

To order your copy go to http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/Field%20Guide_more.html

Snip of Review by Sophie Powell:
http://fictionwritersreview.com:80/reviews/the-rose-metal-press-field-guide-to-writing-flash-fiction-tips-from-editors-teachers-and-writers-in-the-field-edited-by-tara-l-masih

"As a creative writing professor at Boston College, I frequently use collections of flash fiction, stories which usually run 1000 words or less. Given time limitations and the varying writing experience of my students, these versatile, word-limited pieces are a very approachable and satisfying form to work within. However, I always find myself floundering about when I try to explain and define this genre for the first time. As Pamelyn Casto, one of the thought-provoking, inspiring contributors, puts it: "Flash fiction is difficult if not impossible to define--and should be allowed to remain so--because this type of writing is protean. It takes takes on various shapes and uses different strategies to achieve its goals." This is why this collection is so successful, and so essential, to anyone in the field of short fiction who teaches, writes, and is interested in its history and practice. These essays are probing and explorative rather than reductive and constrictive. A true 'field guide' in spirit, I came away thoroughly more equipped to teach and write short fiction in a richer, more illuminating way."
-----
Snip of Review by Miriam Kotzin
www.percontra.net/15fieldguide.htm

"Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction is destined to be a best seller. It's a valuable resource not only for writers and teachers of creative writing, but for readers who want to deepen their understanding of this popular form."
-----
Snip of Review by Jacky Taylor
http://howpublishingreallyworks.blogspot.com:80/2009/07/field-guide-to-writing-flash-fiction.html

"Collectively, the twenty five essays contained here explore the different facets of writing good flash fiction and such a prismatic approach reveals much of the art to writing the very best of them. The authors, many distinguished and multi-award winners amongst them, are all actively engaged in the form as either writers, teachers or editors - some in all three - and precisely because of this experience, they don't mess around but go straight to the heart of what they want to say. Each focuses on an aspect of either writing, teaching or editing flash fiction and, as forceful advocates of the form, what they convey is frequently eloquent, often illuminating, always passionate."
-----
Snip from Everyday Fiction
http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/category/review

A useful, intelligent addition to the discussion of flash fiction, Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction manages to give readers what they want to know about flash fiction without limiting the genre with "strict definitions."

2009-07-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Course (Online)

I'll be teaching the next online flash fiction course starting on September 14, 2009. The four-week course always fills quickly so if you plan to sign on, do it soon (the number of participants is limited). To sign up go to
http://www.flashquake.org:80/online-classes/flash-fiction.html

Got my copy of Rose Metal Press Field Guide To Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field (Tara Masih, Editor. Brookline, MA: Rose Metal Press, 2009). The collection of articles on writing flash fiction is outstanding. I am also grateful to the fine writer, Robert Hill Long, for providing me with an outstanding example piece for my own article (on using myth to write flash fiction). To order your copy go to
http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/Field%20Guide_more.html

I'll be posting some reviews on the collection quite soon.

2009-04-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field (Tara Masih, editor)

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field is ready for pre-orders!

Be sure to go to http://www.rosemetalpress.com/Catalog/catalog.html to place your order now. (The publication should be available in May.)

I'm very excited about seeing my own article within (on using myth for creating flash fiction) and am eager to read the articles written by all the other writers. These are the fine writers who have articles in the collection:

Steve Almond
Rusty Barnes
Randall Brown
Mark Budman
Stace Budzko
Robert Olen Butler
Ron Carlson
Pamelyn Casto
Kim Chinquee
Stuart Dybek
Pia Z. Ehrhardt
Sherrie Flick
Vanessa Gebbie
Tom Hazuka
Nathan Leslie
Michael Martone
Julio Ortega
Pamela Painter
Jayne Anne Phillips
Jennifer Pieroni
Shouhua Qi
Bruce Holland Rogers
Robert Shapard
Deb Olin Unferth
Lex Williford

Will post more info when I get it. But this is a collection serious writers of flash fiction will definitely want to have, so pre-order now to make sure you get your copy.

2009-03-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Writing is a four volume collection of well-researched articles on various types of contemporary literature. (Edited by Ken Womack, Greenwood Press: Westport, Connecticut & London, 2008).

I'm pleased with my own article on flash fiction (about 8,000 words)
and impressed with all the other articles. Each of the 80-plus articles by experts in the type are carefully researched and all follow the structure of Definition, History, Trends and Themes, Contexts and Issues, Reception, Selected Authors, Bibliography, and Further Reading (each article is 7,500-plus words).

This encyclopedia of contemporary literatures and reading practices merges conventional forms of text with unconventional types in a myriad of ways and each article provides the finer points of each type.

Here are just some article titles I find fascinating (including in-depth
discussions of many types of writing I was not that familiar with).

Magical Realism
Terrorism Fiction
Verse Novels
Transrealist Fiction
GLBTQ Literature
Language Poetry
Latino American Literature
Philological Thrillers
Road Fiction
Asian American Literature
Academic Fiction
Arab American Literature
Cyberpunk
Native American Literature
Literary Journalism
Manga and Anime
(plus many more articles I've not explored yet).

The retail price of this four-volume encyclopedia might be outside the budget of a lot of writers, but asking the local library to order the collection is also a possibility. Writers in general would gain a lot from reading these articles.

Now I'll get back to exploring it more myself. More info another time.

2008-08-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

BOOKS AND BEYOND: THE GREENWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW AMERICAN READING (Ken Womack, Editor, four volumes, hardcover, 2008).

I recently got the news that my 7,500-word (plus) article on flash fiction that's to be part of a four-volume work on contemporary American fiction will be released in October, 2008. The title of the project is BOOKS AND BEYOND: THE GREENWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW AMERICAN READING.

The Amazon site (where they're taking preorders) says: "each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides a definition of the genre, an overview of its history, a look at trends and themes, a discussion of authors and works, and suggestions for further reading." It also says, "More than 80 alphabetically arranged entries summarize the state of popular literature in America today."

You can see the other details at :
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Beyond-Four-Volumes-Encyclopedia/dp/0313337381/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218401206&sr=1-2

It was a tough job researching and writing the article (took a long time, too), but I'm pleased with how it turned out. So many people were so helpful in providing me with good information--especially Kent Dixon, Robert Shapard,and Jessica Treat thank you so much, Kent, Robert, and Jessica for all the wonderful material you sent me. I'm looking forward to seeing all four volumes of the Greenwood Encyclopedia in October.

2008-08-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field_ Edited by Tara L. Masih (and due for release/ publication in Spring 2009).

Happy day for me because last night I got the final edits for an article I wrote that will be included in the above anthology. The collection will be on preorder next winter at www.rosemetalpress.com

That was a tough article to write but it turned out quite well. I certainly worked hard enough on it! The editor agrees and that's important too. It was a challenging article to write since I had to come up with my personal/ working definition of flash fiction, had to explain effective techniques for writing it, had to come up with story prompts, and had to have an example story to illustrate what I am saying/ explaining in thearticle. The fine writer, Robert Hill Long, provided my example story so I was happy to get an outstanding one to use.

Anyway, I got lots of fine compliments from the editor so I'm very pleased. It feels good to think you've done a good job and then have it confirmed by the editor.

My topic, by the way, is metamorphosing myth to create short-short fiction.

I'm also exceedingly pleased about the company I'll be with in the anthology. Along with my article there will also be articles by Robert Olen Butler, Sherrie Flick, David Martone, Jayne Anne Phillips, Deb Olin Unferth, Ron Carlson, Pia Z. Ehrhardt, Julio Ortega, Bruce Holland Rogers, Pamela Painter, Robert Shapard, and many other fine writers (25 writers in all).

Now... if only my 7,500-word article that's to be part of a four-volume work on contemporary American fiction would also be released soon. It's to be published in England and distributed to colleges and high school throughout the U.S. and Canada. These things take so much time to finally see light of day. But that's okay... hopefully I'll still be around to see it in print when it's finally published. (I expect that will be late next year or early the following year.)

But at least now I can concentrate again on the anthology I'm compiling with Jessica Treat and Lawrence Greenberg. We have some really outstanding stories from some extraordinary writers (this is a by invitation only project and we convinced the best of the best to submit stories). Talk about something that takes a lot of time, though!

2008-07-02T07:09:00.001-07:00

FLASH FICTION FLASH NEWSLETTER

I just sent out a new issue of Flash Fiction Flash: The Newsletter for Flash Literature. It's free, comes out every month, and is delivered to you by email. It contains a lot of information about flash literature (markets, contests, writing courses, publishing news, and more). If you'd like the latest issue then send a blank message to

FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Once you subscribe then you'll receive your free issue each month.

2008-05-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that I'll have an article in the collection below. This winter you'll be able to preorder. Here's the info as written by the publisher...

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction:Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field

Edited by Tara L. Masih

SPRING 2009

This collection of short essays on flash fiction, which also includes exercises, example stories, and a reading list, will be essential reading for teachers and writers of fiction. The recent explosive growth of the short short story genre has changed the literary landscape, and The RoseMetal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction offers a broad and engaging look at the genre from celebrated masters of the form. Contributors include Ron Carlson, Michael Martone, Pamela Painter, Robert Shapard, Pamelyn Casto, Robert Olen Butler, Julio Ortega, Lex Williford, Sherrie Flick, NathanLeslie, and many more. Look for the collection on preorder next winter atwww.rosemetalpress.com

2008-01-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

RUTGERS-NEWARK REAL LIVES, REAL STORIES M.F.A. PROGRAM

I received this exciting news from Jayne Anne Phillips, author of BLACKTICKETS (one of the finest flash fiction collections I've read). In this new M.F.A. program in Newark, which just started this year, short-shorts area major part of the curriculum. Here's what The Atlantic had to say about it last summer:"

"One of the most exciting programs has yet to commence: The Rutgers-NewarkReal Lives, Real Stories M.F.A. program begins this fall and will be led bythe novelist Jayne Anne Phillips. The 33 writers entering the program rangein age from 24 to 60; one-third are students of color, many are raising families, and some have ongoing careers in other fields.""Where Great Writers are Made" by Edward J. Delaney- The Atlantic Special Fiction Issue, 2007.

The new application season has started and runs November 1 through January15. The program, says Phillips, is "very affordable, very urban, and we offer some form of funding to almost a third of our students. See all details at www.mfa.newark.rutgers.edu

2007-10-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Art of Brevity: Excursions in Short Fiction Theory and Analysis
Editors: Per Winther, Jakob Lothe, Hans H. Skei.
Publisher: University of South Caroline Press, 2004.

Review by Pamelyn Casto (originally published in FlashFictionFlash Newsletter, April 2007).

For those interested in theory and analysis, this is a book you must have. It's an international meeting of the minds on short fiction as various university scholars from the U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden come together to discuss and scrutinize the short story. Some of the scholarly articles include:

* "Why Short Stories Are Essential and Why They Are Seldom Read" (Charles May)*

*"Origins, Development, Substance, and Design of the Short Story: How I Got Hooked on the Short Story and Where It Led Me" (Mary Rohrberger)

*"Closure and Preclosure as Narrative Grid in Short Story Analysis: Some Methodological Suggestions"(Per Winther),

* "Danish Short Shorts in the 1990's and the Jena-Romantic Fragments" (GitteMose),

* "Short Notes on Tall Tales: Some Australian Examples" (W. H. New)

* "Architexture in Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty" (Jan Nordby Gretlund),

* "The Queer Short Story"(Axel Nissen)

There are also many other fine and illuminating articles. I've been hard at work researching and writing a lengthy article on flash fiction (for a large project I'm involved in) and the articles by Gitte Mose and Charles May were especially useful for my research. Well, actually all of them were quite enlightening and well worth reading. I'd recommend this book for anyone interested in short fiction and literary theory/analysis.

2007-09-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Flash /Sudden/Micro fiction continues to grow in reader popularity. Two new Flash/ Sudden anthologies are available and they are just as excellent as the earlier anthologies.

One is New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and Beyond, edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.) Some of the authors Tobias Wolff, Sam Shepard, AimeeBender, Nadine Gordimer, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Pia Z.Ehrhardt, Peter Markus, Deb Olin Unferth, and many others. Outstandingreading, as usual.

The other anthology is from the same editors as above and is titled FlashFiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007). Some of the authors include Paul Theroux, Alison Townsend, Ron Carlson, Lydia Davis, Dave Eggers, Donald Hall, Grace Paley, Robert Coover, Barbara Jacksha, Utahna Faith (Jacksha and Faith are two writers I've workedwith for years in my flash fiction workshop), Amy Hempel, Etgar Keret, Pamela Painter, Bruce Holland Rogers, Mark Budman, and many other fine writers.

Readers who love literary flash fiction will no doubt love these anthologies too.

2007-09-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Flash/Sudden/Micro Fiction continues to grow in reader popularity.

Two new Flash/ Sudden anthologies are available and they are just as excellent as the earlier anthologies. One is New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and Beyond, edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.) Some of the authors included are Tobias Wolff, Sam Shepard, Aimee Bender, Nadine Gordimer, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Pia Z. Ehrhardt, Peter Markus, Deb Olin Unferth, and many others. Outstanding reading, as usual.

The other anthology is from the same editors as above and is titled FlashFiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories (New York: W.W. Norton., 2007). Some of the authors include Paul Theroux, Alison Townsend, Ron Carlson, Lydia Davis, Dave Eggers, Donald Hall, Grace Paley, Robert Coover, Barbara Jacksha, Utahna Faith (Jacksha and Faith are two writers I've workedwith for years in my flash fiction workshop), Amy Hempel, Etgar Keret, Pamela Painter, Bruce Holland Rogers, Mark Budman, and many other fine writers.

Readers who love literary flash fiction will no doubt love these anthologies too.

2007-03-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

Interview and Anthology Review

There's an interview with me in the Jan/Feb/Mar 2007 issue of Mslexia: For Women Who Write (a print publication in England). It's titled "The Joy of Writing Flash Fiction". Editor Daneet Steffens is a joy to work with (so patient and so professional). The magazine itself is excellent-- beautifully executed. In this issue they also ran one of my flash fiction stories as an illo for the interview. You can see the contents of this issue at http://www.mslexia.co.uk/
-----
In my newsletter, Flash Fiction Flash, ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash )I ran an anthology review. So for those who don't subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, you can read that review here.

COLLECTION/ ANTHOLOGY REVIEW
(Review by Pamelyn Casto)

PP/FF: An Anthology
Buffalo, New York:
Starcherone Books, 2006.
Edited by Peter Connors
http://www.starcherone.com/ppff.htm

(This is a new feature of the newsletter-- brief reviews of flash literature anthologies or collections I've read.)

PP/FF is an anthology any lover of literary flash fiction and prose poetry will be interested in reading. As editor Peter Connors says in the introduction, "PP/FF is prose poetry and flash fiction balanced on a makeshift teeter-totter that never lands."

The anthology is 236 pages of fascinating reading. Some of the writers who have stories within include Stuart Dybek, Peter Markus, Jessica Treat, Lydia Davis, Derek White, Ethan Paquin, Kim Addonizio, Brian Clements, Mark Tursi (and many other fine writers).

Below are some of the stories I find most interesting. There are many others but here are three of my personal favorites. (I have to keep the review short so a choice of three will be my magic number.)

Darryl Scroggins' mini-novel titled Prairie Shapes, A Flash Novel. Who says a novel must be so many pages long? Why can't it be super short, as is Scroggins' novel? Scroggins' novel is about sixteen pages long and isdivided into twenty "chapters." Interesting.

Jessica Treat's disturbing story titled "Drive." It uses "you" address and is about a narrator who hits someone on the road late at night as she's driving all alone. The man wasn't killed but only bumped and he asks for a ride and the narrator agrees to give him one. In this "drive"all sorts of drives are illustrated and enacted (and suggested). The narrator could be any of us and that makes the "you" address especially effective.

Anthony Tognazzini's "Same Game." This story is a modern version of The Ant and the Grasshopper and the outstanding story isn't even a full page long-- about as brief as Aesop's old tale. But it's an even more memorable and disturbing piece (without the moral Aesop gives).

PP/FF shows how blurry the line between flash fiction and prose poetry. As editor, Connors brings the writers of both together to create an interesting and provocative anthology. The stories range from a brief quarter of a page to three or four pages long. (Scroggins' novel is sixteen pages long.) The pieces run the gamut from more straightforward stories to highly experimental styles. It's a compendium of fascinating and provocative prose poetry and flash fiction. May the blurry "teeter-totter"continue its fascinating movement. Ordering information for PP/FF: http://www.starcherone.com/ppff.htm (and here you can see a list of all writers with work included).

2007-03-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

Esquire Magazine recently (February 2007) created a great project. Their staff sent out napkins to 250 writers across the country and asked these writers to write a "napkin story"-- a story that would fit on a napkin.

Some of the 100 writers who participated include Madison Smartt Bell, Ethan Paquin, Aimee Bender, Ron Carlson, Tony Eprile, Rick Moody, and 96 others. Some of the tiny stories are great. Some are minimalist stories, some are full and lush, and the stories range from hilarious to downright disturbing.

What is also interesting about the project is getting to see the actual handwriting of all the writers. I'm so used to seeing their writing in print that I was surprised to see plain old-fashioned pencil/pen writing. (I also love doing handwriting analysis for fun and sport.)

Flash fiction use sall sorts of forms and all sorts of materials for creating stories, so now, thanks to the Esquire Napkin Project, we see that napkins can work for writers too.

Go to http://www.esquire.com/fiction/napkin-fiction/napkinproject to read the fine variety of stories.

2006-11-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

Flash Fiction Horror Writing Interview with Pamelyn Casto

Below is part 1 and part 2 of an interview with me on writing flash fiction horror pieces

The interview was published in Jobs In Hell #158 on November 12, 2002. The interview was conducted by Michael T. Huyck, Jr. (The second part of the interview was published a week later.)

A couple of things in the interview have been updated to reflect what I'm currently doing. In order to keep the interview as it was originally published I've noted any updates in parentheses.
SHORT AND (MAYBE) SWEET I

Interview By Michael T. Huyck, Jr.

I "met" Pamelyn Casto years ago on an Internet writing workshop and we've been buddies ever since. It's her smile that I like (we did get to hang out together maybe five years ago - ask her about the highway and the tennyrunners.) And her wicked wit. Oh, and her writing. Back then, as we were developing, she chose to wander a path that includes the smallest and tightest bits of fiction. Call 'em short-shorts. Call 'em flash. Call 'em micro. Just don't call 'em nasty names in front of her.

Pam's articles have been featured in Writer's Digest, The Art of Haiku 2000, Web Del Sol's Perihelion, Riding the Meridian, Fiction Fix, E2K: The New Literary Paradigm, the Toastmaster magazine (and other print and online publications). Her shorter work has appeared in, among others, Suddenly: Prose Poetry and Sudden Fiction (Vol.3), Potpourri, Modern Haiku, Mindprints, Flashquake, and Ship of Fools. As if the writing isn't enough to keep her busy, she's also the editor of Flash Fiction Flash: The Newsletter for Flash Literature Writers (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash), she created and runs online flash fiction and poetry workshops, and (finally) teaches online courses in writing flash fiction through Coffeehouse For Writers. I'm surprised she has the time for us. (Update: I now teach four-week online courses in flash fiction and haibun through flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html )

Jobs In Hell: Let's start with some clarification, Pam. What's the difference between flash fiction and short fiction? How might I tell them apart?

Pamelyn Casto: Tough questions, and pretty well impossible to answer! The clearest difference is length but that won't get us very far. Some flash fiction runs 50 words (or even fewer sometimes). Some flash fiction runs up to 1,000 words (or more). Then there's sudden fiction, which can run 2,000 words or so.

JIH: Sudden fiction. I hadn't heard of that one.

PC: "Sudden fiction" usually represents the upper length limit for short-short stories. As you see, even the form's name can't quite be pinned down. Some call it flash fiction, micro fiction, postcard fiction, fast or zip or quick fiction, minimalist fiction, sudden fiction, smoke-long stories, and several other names. Some names are interchangeable and some aren't. So my preference is just "short-short fiction." Which merely means it's shorter than short fiction.

Much depends on what an editor or publisher wants to call such work and what length requirements he or she wants to set for publishing these stories. Or even how the particular editor/ publisher views flash fiction itself. Some insist that it be exactly like short fiction in having a traditional structure of beginning/middle/end with a conflict and/or an epiphany. Some prefer more experimental flash fiction-- fiction that doesn't necessarily stick to commonly accepted fiction-writing "rules" (e.g., stories with no apparent conflict, stories one or two long sentences that cover two or three pages, and mood or language or tone pieces). So there are a wide variety of ways writers create flash fiction. As Charles Baxter says about short-short stories, "as a form, they are open, and exist in a state of potential." Writers writing in the form today also have a hand in determining what it is and what it can do and how it might be defined.

JIH: In the sense that the author has more room for definition, short-short fiction sounds like a close cousin to poetry. Is that a fair comparison?

PC: A very fair comparison. In many ways they're like kissin' cousins. Some prose poetry such as Carolyn Forche's "The Colonel" and some of Russell Edson's work is anthologized in both flash fiction anthologies and prose poetry anthologies.

In fact, one recent anthology made the wise choice of calling the work within "fiction" rather than prose poetry. The publishers realized that many people dislike anything called "poetry" so they overcame that obstacle by calling the short works "fiction." That's not to say poetry and flash fiction are the same. There are differences. But short-short stories are often boundary crossers, threshold pieces, and some writers do make heavy use of various poetry devices to tell their stories.

By definition, short-shorts must be... short. Therefore these stories often make use of concision and condensation. As William Faulkner said of poetry,"You have less room to be slovenly and careless. There's less room in it for trash." In short-short fiction, where the goal is to put up and shut up, every word or image becomes important. Such brief pieces have to be as concise and rich as some poetry.

Another comparison between flash fiction and poetry is in the area of dramatic monologues. Poet Robert Browning is known for such poetry and such pieces work in part because they don't go on and on. Flash fiction is an ideal length for dramatic monologues, which can become quite tedious in longer works where the writer is locked into one voice only. So that's an astute observation you made that poetry and flash fiction can be closely related.

For instance, as with some poetry there's no room in a short-short for much character or plot development. So many writers will use various forms of literary shorthand to achieve their effects. John Updike used literary shorthand when he titled one of his short-shorts "Pygmalion". In so doing he could draw on what readers already know about that literary character. Charles Baxter did likewise with his short- short "Scheherazade." Many readers are already familiar with these literary characters so the writers didn't have to say much about them. This is a form of condensation, compressing a character's character to a name. Then the writer can focus on the story that results from the use of the richly-charged character name.

JIH: No room for plot? No room for character? Argghhh. Tell, me, Pam,why would I write this? What do I gain as a writer? How do I grow?

PC: Let's say there's *little room* for plot and character development. Flash fiction stories can be conceived as little rooms--as Keats said of poetry, in good short-shorts we can find "infinite riches in small rooms." Once more, concision and condensation or compression come into play in flash fiction.

PC: Think of flash fiction as Edgar Allen Poe' s "aesthetic theory of effect" pushed to the limit. Poe wrote that a short story writer should subordinate everything in a story (plot, characters, style, etc.) in order to bring out a single, preconceived effect. I'll quote him. "In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction."

So I'd say that writing flash fiction using a single effect can improve the skills of even writers of longer fiction. Think of a potent scene in anovel, a charged chapter that is done so well that it has a profound effect on readers. We might think of some flash fiction as effecting a moment of revelation, a sudden epiphany-- an "aha!" moment where some truth about the human condition suddenly flashes before readers' eyes. But such flash fiction pieces can also stand alone, be unattached to a larger story, and be as satisfying as a complete story in their sudden revelation. They can also be like "real life" in many ways, too, in that "truth" often arrives in surprising moments and isn't usually a prolonged affair. It's suddenly there, in what seems like a flash of illumination or understanding. Flash fiction can capture and convey these moments, these small and surprising and often disturbing truths in a satisfying way.

JIH: Let's go with the Poe description and apply it, then. Can you point our readers towards the path they need to take to get to that "single, preconceived effect"? What writing foundations are available, no, better yet, applicable, to achieving the desired effect in, say, 500 words?

PC: The writer must decide the desired effect in advance and then carefully work to achieve it. Let's try an example. Russell Edson's "Dinner Time" is a super-shorty depicting an old married couple consumed with rage. No names are used and the setting is a generic kitchen. The old man waits for his dinner to be served and the sound of pain and rage coming from the cooking pots his wife is beating is the kind that makes him want to inflict more of the same on his environment. So the rage-filled old man punches his face. The rage-filled woman curses the pots for burning her, drops the dinner, and the dinner utensils scream out in pain. The old man beats himself and various other objects in his own fits of rage. Every action depicted is an act of rage. Pots are beaten, the old man smashes his head into a wall, punches his face and his legs to teach them a lesson. A mirror is punched and shattered, a chair is broken, the stove gets axed, and threats are made:"I'll cut your ears off." "Come near me and I'll kick an eye out of your head." The story ends with the old man first swallowing his fist, then a spoon, and then finally he swallows himself. He's literally eaten up with rage. His wife's response: 'Okay...Now you've done it.' A single effect is the result-- a story of all-consuming rage. Everything in the darkly comical and disturbing story contributes to the single effect and the metaphor is made literal.

Or let's go even shorter--around 250 words. Molly Giles' "The Poet'sHusband" is a model of controlled ambiguity. Again, there are no names used in the story and readers are presented with a married couple's relationship (condensed) as the husband attends his wife's poetry reading. But Giles uses a single significant detail at the end of the story, which turns what came before on its head. What she created isn't one of those gimmicky twist ending stories. In her story, one sentence long, about the length of a long paragraph, the couple's relationship history is effectively and briefly presented, and the final significant detail (a spot on a drinking glass)provides a surprising epiphany for readers, a sudden disturbing understanding of the nature of their relationship. Everything that came before leads to and contributes to the final revelation but it's written so well that a reader is kept off track until the final detail is revealed. Then readers realize the nature of the poet's husband. A flash of a disturbing truth is revealed. In Giles' little gem there's not a single word that doesn't contribute to what had to have been a pre-established design.

JIH: If I'm reading things correct, you're focused on verbs and adjectives instead of clearly defined nouns. Is that the fundamental difference? The difference that, without it, would remove the separation between the short-shorts and the shorts? Hell, I feel like I'm doing laundry here. C'mon, Pam, help me nail it down here. We're boiling down the short-short to its essence. Nothing but underwear and a smile. Answer me after I put this load in the dryer.

PC: Mikey, now I'm picturing you in front of the dryer in your B.V.Ds-- oh, dear, is this our segue into horror stories? (Couldn't resist that cheap shot, Mikey. We gotta take 'em as we find 'em, you know.) Let's see, you want secrets, fundamental supports, foundational undergarments. Or as we called them back in the hills, you want the skinny on the skivvies. Well, it could be that flash fiction sometimes ain't always necessarily wearin' any! It can be so elusive, so Cheshire cat-ish that it's impossible to get to its essence because its essence keeps changing according to whatever story we might consider. It's not a fixed form or genre at all. And that's part of the beauty of it. It can be, as Allen Woodman put it, "a sort of litmus test for finding out what elements one really needs in a story after all" but we want to avoid the various procrustean skivvies some will try to fit these stories into. To define something is to also limit it. To remove all the moisture, to try to dry it too dry, is also to shrink it. And there's little worse than stiff, dried-out, shrunken and ill-fitting underwear! Seriously, it's always risky to try to develop "rules," bare-butt skivvies for this type of writing. Because the "rules" change according to the story created. This type of writing exists in a state of potential and writers work to realize the potential in such a wide variety of ways.

JIH: I do believe that's the answer I was diggin' for, Madam. And thank you for the static cling. Now, since you brought it up (haven't you learned yet not to do that in interviews?) - let's talk horror. Earlier you mentioned Poe, whose poesy often crosses over into storytelling territory. And then there's the phenomenal Ambrose Bierce's exploration of the area. I could provide a paragraph of examples, because short-short fiction isn't a new to our subject genre. Given that, I have to wonder if the form doesn't lend itself well to all that's spooky and dark. Thoughts?

PC: You're right that short-shorts aren't new. They've always been around but now we have some new names to play with. And lots of experimentation going on. I also agree that the form lends itself well "to all that's spooky and dark." I think of Poe's disturbing poems, "The Raven" and "The Conqueror Worm." Or his chilling story, "The Cask of Amontillado." They're certainly memorable works and relatively short, too.

At your mention of Bierce, I just reread his terrifying story, "Chickamauga" and the horrific pantomime that takes place is terribly chilling. That final image of the deaf-mute child with no way to articulate the ineffable, the true horror of war, will never leave my mind. It gave me the shudders!

Flash fiction pieces can lend themselves well to almost any emotion or idea. And they can be especially effective in depicting the spooky, the eerie, the disturbing and terrifying. Because they subscribe to the "less is more" idea, the achieved effects can often be even more startling, disturbing, or frightening than in longer works. And that's because situations can be brought into brief and startling high relief-- a sudden flash of horror before the reader's eyes.

JH: NPR once ran a Hyper Fiction Contest and the story below was used as an example of the world's shortest horror story. Here it is in its entirety (but I have no idea who the author was):

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.

Now that's brief. But also spooky once the reader thinks about the implications. He's not alone... so what is doing the knocking? The story's quite clever but not exactly why I read short-shorts. I want more than that clever little story provides. But it does illustrate how short something can be and still achieve a spooky effect.

PC: As short-short writer Raymond Carver said: "It's possible...to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow these things-- a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring -- with immense, even startling power. It is possible to write a line of seemingly innocuous dialogue and have it send a chill along the reader's spine."

I've read some especially spine-chilling short-shorts. There's OctavioPaz's "The Blue Bouquet" where at the whim of his girlfriend a man collects blue eyes from living people for a special blue bouquet. The brief story depicts the horror of random and even whimsical violence. There's RaymondCarver's "Popular Mechanics" that depicts a couple in the throes of a nasty fight and ends with the image of a child being pulled violently at each arm by the parents. Alice Walker's "The Flowers" is another. A young girl is alone in the woods gathering flowers. As she reaches for a particularly attractive flower for her bouquet, she then discovers a man's decomposed body-- she steps in his eyes. Then she sees the remnants of a noose. She's suddenly cast out of the Edenic existence she understands and there is evil in the world. Then there's Kafka's terrifying little fable (or anti-fable), which depicts the horror of a double-bind or paradox in fewer than ninety words.

Related to this, I think, is something Franz Kafka insisted. He never wanted his Gregor Samsa (the character who turns into a dung beetle in the highly disturbing "Metamorphosis") to be illustrated. With an artist's sense, Kafka knew that to get too "graphic" would destroy the power of the literary image/ metaphor.

Further, if we think about bad horror movies, they're often bad (sometimes even laughable) because they go on too long or get too ridiculously graphic-- as in blood pumping out of water faucets, or oozing up toilets, or cascading from ceiling beams. So employing the art of brevity, suggestion, image, and implication sometimes produces quite horrific effects without sustained length.

---- (END OF PART 1) (Below is Part II)

Part II: Flash Fiction Horror Writing Interview With Pamelyn Casto

"Short and (Maybe) Sweet II"
Interview conducted by Michael T. Huyck, Jr.
(Originally published in Jobs in Hell #159 - Tuesday, November 19, 2002)

JIH: So, if it's a good medium for horror, why aren't there more publications out there focusing on short-shorts? You'd think there'd be more short-short story action, what with them not taking as much out of a writer.

PC: There are plenty of markets out there. Some specialize in short-shorts and some markets accept longer fiction but leave room for short-shorts, too. There are ample print markets and plenty of online markets as well. It's all a matter of finding them. I'd guess I'm aware of at least 600 markets, ranging from small press literary publications to commercial publications. There are many short-short contests as well, some of which have nice prize money for winners. The Internet provides new opportunities all the time.

PC: Many people don't care to read long texts on screen but still seek good writing without the eye strain that screen reading can bring. Short-short scan fill that bill. But short-shorts are definitely not easy to write. The good pieces only *look* easy. Sure, a writer can probably rough draft such a story in one sitting, but this tight work demands plenty of thinking, editing, and re-visioning to achieve the desired effect or impact. They require intense concentration and attention to detail from writers.

PC: For instance, Alice K.Turner, fiction editor for Playboy, says there are only six short-short writers in the world, meaning (I think) that many are called but few are chosen. Some also say that the shorter the piece, the more likely it will fail. I think there's plenty of truth in those words. Those who really know how difficult they are to write are usually those who've tried to write them. They're definitely a challenge. The writers who amaze me, too, are those who create flash fiction type novels -- I can't imagine sustaining that kind of writing concentration for so long.

PC: The perception so many have that short-shorts are easy writing can turn out to be the very downfall of the genre. There was a time in the past when short-shorts were welcome submissions. But something happened that made them almost disappear from the publishing scene for some time. I suspect it was because too many people began writing them-- fast-- and the sheer volume of submissions probably turned a lot of editors or publishers off. Good short-shorts are works of art and creating works of art doesn't come easily or quickly.

PC: And speaking of fear and how daunting writing short pieces can be, even the great Anton Chekhov, who said of his stories "I can speak briefly on long subjects," grew nervous and doubtful when trying to write for a magazine that accepted stories of only one hundred lines. Now that's scary!

JIH: I'm gonna synopsize, then move into closure, Pam. We're going long here. When boiled down, you're saying that successful short-shorts are more about the impact left on the reader than the structure and development. Right?

PC: "Impact" is a fine concept for the goal of short-shorts. Good stories of any length should have some sort of impact on the reader. Shorties can provide a powerful and startling impact or provide a more subtle impact. To me the goal is to achieve impact with the intention of somehow disturbing a reader's equilibrium. Short-shorts can disturb equilibrium in a variety of ways, such as making a reader smile or laugh, making a reader see something in a new light, making a reader think new or different thoughts, or making a reader feel chills along the spine or feel the shudder of outright horror. After all, human life and emotion is multi-faceted and highly focused short-shorts can convey these facets in small and equilibrium- disturbing doses.

JIH: Tell us - where's Pamelyn Casto going from here? And where can our readers learn more about writing short-shorts again?

PC: As for me, I'll continue to study and write short-shorts. I have several in various stages of revision and need to work on those again. And I'll continue to teach courses at Coffeehouse For Writers. (Update: I now teach flash fiction and haibun courses through flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html )-- the next course begins this coming Monday, and then there will be others in 2003. (Update: the next courses I teach will be in early 2007. See flashquake page for updates.) I'm also working on a flash fiction type novel tentatively called Holler Stories, based on a particular location in Eastern Kentucky.

In addition, I'm busyworking on a book on how to write short-shorts with Geoff Fuller. So stay tuned for that. (Update: Geoff and I are now working on separate projects rather than on our book. I'm still plugging on that, though!)

JIH: Where can readers learn more about short-shorts?

PC: Geoff Fuller and I have an article in the current Writer's Digest Yearbook on writing effective twist endings for short-shorts. It's in the December 2002 issue of Guide To Writing Fiction Today and is at bookstores now. We also had an article on writing short-shorts in the October 2002 issue of Writer's Digest that might still be available to some of your readers.

PC: And in case some keep or have access to back issues, we've also had feature-length articles on flash fiction writing in earlier Writer's Digest issues-- in the February 2001 issue of Writer's Digest, in the Winter 2002 issue of Guide to Writing Fiction Today (Writer's Digest's Yearbook), and the January 2002 issue of Start Writing Now: Your Introduction to the Writing Life (also a Writer's Digest publication).

PC: Another great way to study a type of writing is by going to the sources themselves. Here are the titles of some excellent short-short anthologies that are readily available at or through major bookstores:

Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories Edited by James Thomas

Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories Edited by Jerome Stern

Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories Edited by Irving Howe and Illana Weiner Howe

Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories Edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas

Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short-Short Stories Edited by James Thomas and Robert Shapard

Sudden Fiction Continued: 60 New Short-Short Stories Edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas

2006-10-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Course Filled, My Article Byline Restored, Flash Fiction Quotes

Flash Fiction Online Course Filled for October
(Next Course in January).

My online four-week course in Flash Fiction has filled again (it begins October 30th). I limit the number of participants in order to give everyone in the course the personal attention they deserve. I'm pleased that so many are interested in learning more about how to write these fascinating stories.

I probably won't be teaching another course on flash fiction until January 2007. Stay tuned for the next course date sometime in the first of the year. Or you can check the course schedule at flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html for updates.

I look forward to Monday, the start day of my new course, when I'll get to work with a whole new group of creative people eager to learn more about writing flash fiction. (I recently finished up teaching my four-week online course in haibun writing and was very pleased with the results. I got some good feedback from participants and I always like and appreciate that.)

My Flash Fiction Article Byline Restored

Some of you are aware that my online article, "Flashes on the Meridian: Dazzled by Flash Fiction" (originally published in Riding the Meridian and other places under other titles), was "lifted" and claimed by someone else for use in another publication. Well, the fine editors of Kavitayan, where the incident took place, took remedial action and have replaced the undeserved byline with my own. As it should be since I'm actually the one who actually wrote the article.

I'm so grateful to editors who make things right again when someone decides to call someone else's work their own. That particular article has been published (with my byline) at numerous publications (Riding the Meridian, Net Author's E2K, Writing World, Fiction Fix, Whim's Place and several other places) so I don't know what made the person who took my article think she/ he could get away with claiming it as her/ his own! Thanks to fine and caring editors, this person didn't get away with it. If you're not familiar with my article you can now see it at Kavitayan http://www.geocities.com/kavitayan/flash01.html where it has MY byline now.

Flash Fiction Quotes

Joyce Carol Oates says in her Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers:"One way of approaching the miniature narrative is to read it backward, for the final line is everything. And one helpful way of composing the miniature narrative is to write the final line first, and see how swiftly and gracefully one can move to it."

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (in 1897) said: "A good short story is a work of art which daunts us in proportion to its brevity.... No inspiration is too noble for it; no amount of hard work is too severe for it."

Joseph Farley, editor of Ax Factory Review (I found the quote in Novel & Short Story Writer's Market 2000), says this: "A good story can work on a number of levels. A story can be a prose poem at heart that bases its success on language and imagery over plot. It can be a teaching tool that edifies the reader and editor. Or, it can be a damned good yarn."

2006-10-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Quotes

Following are some quotes from three outstanding anthologies of flash fiction. I highly recommend any of these three (for those who want to learn more about writing flash fiction or for those who want to read excellent pieces).

Making Shapely Fiction (Jerome Stern, Ed.) W.W. Norton &Co., New York: 1991):

"The shorter the piece of fiction, the less need for a plot. You can write a fine story in which little happens: A man curses his neighbor, a widow quits her mah-jongg group, or an unhappy family goes on a picnic. Simple shapes work better than something fussy and complicated." (Jerome Stern)

From Sudden Stories:The Mammoth Book of Miniscule Fiction. (Dinty W. Moore, Ed.) DuBois, Pennsylvania: Mammoth Press, 2003:

"The jewel of the sudden story is the gap. A lot of words are missing, not because they are extraneous, but because their absence speaks the unspeakable.The writer of the sudden story has to weigh the efficacy of each word. Knowing what to include -- often the details -- and knowing what not to include -- often everything but the details-- that's not a gift. It's a practice that involves trusting the written word more than yourself." (Quote by Lori Ann Stephens)

From Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories. (James Thomas, Denise Thomas & Tom Hazuka, edd.) New York: W.W Norton & Co., Inc., 1992:

"These stories are not tricks, or trills on a flute; rather they are very short stage presentations or musical pieces that play to the full range of human sensibilities--some evoke mood while others provoke the intellect, some introduce us to people we're interested to meet, while others tell us of unusual but understandable phenomena in this world, and some of them do several or all of these things, the things good fiction of any length does." (James Thomas, editor of Flash Fiction)

There are several other fine anthologies/ collections and I'll be talking about these others later on. A few fresh- off- the presses anthologies have found their way to my office, too, so stay tuned.

2006-10-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Miscellany

I sent out a new issue of the Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter today. If you subscribe soon then I'll forward you the latest issue (it's free and distributed via email each month). To subscribe send a blank subject header message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com This month's Featured Market, by John Young, is The Iconoclast. So subscribe right away to see this and several other flash fiction markets along with other flash literature news.

My next Flash Fiction Course starts October 30, 2006. It's a four-week online course I've been teaching for a few years now (two or three times a year). There are only a couple of spots still open so sign up soon to assure your place in the fast-paced course (number of participants is limited and the course fills quickly). See course syllabus and other information at flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html

This summer author Mary Rosenblum from Long Ridge Writer's Group did a live chat interview with me on flash fiction. See the transcripts at http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/ (click on "online interviews with experts")

You can also see my further reading recommendations/links at http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/rx/wc08/pam_casto.shtml along with links to various really fine flash fiction pieces on the 'net-- including one of my own flash fiction pieces which was published in the inaugural issue of flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/archive/vol0iss0/fiction/getdirty.html

Soon I'm going to post a review on a new flash fiction/ prose poetry anthology. One you'll certainly want to read. Stay tuned!

2006-09-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Flash Featured Markets

Each month in my Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash I publish John Young's "Featured Market" articles on paying markets for flash fiction (markets which pay an honorarium, a contributor's copy, and/ or subscription).

John does a great job with getting those extra bits of information out of an editor so that we writers can get a better idea of what works might best fit the publication. John's created a web site where all his past newsletter articles can be viewed. See them at http://mysite.verizon.net/ressce9j/id2.html

The many other markets listed in my free online newsletter are for subscribers only. You can subscribe by sending a blank subject header message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com Then each month you'll receive the latest publishing news for writers of flash literature, including John Young's fine monthly articles, and it will be delivered right to your emailbox.

Keep flashing!

2006-09-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction Articles Published by Writer's Digest

Today I'm going to list the feature-length articles Geoff Fuller and I co-wrote on flash fiction for various Writer's Digest publications (in case you'd like to look them up to learn more about flash fiction writing).

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "How To Write Short-Short Stories." Writers' Digest. Feb. 2001 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Put The Flash Into Fiction." Guide ToWriting Fiction Today (A Writer's Digest Yearbook Publication). Winter 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Simple Complexity." Start Writing Now! Your Introduction to the Writing Life (A Writer's Digest Publication). Jan. 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "4 Simple Steps to Short Fiction ThatShines." Writer's Digest. October 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Give Your Tales a Twist." Writer's Digest Yearbook:Guide To Writing Fiction Today, December 2002 issue.

Here are a couple of quotes from one of the articles (quotes I found at a Writer's Digest archive site) titled "Seven Fast Fiction Tips":

http://www.writersdigest.com/archiveitemdisplay.asp?id=1228&secondarycategory
(excerpts from the February 2001 issue of Writer's Digest):

"A short-short must remain simple, from conception through execution. Not simplistic, but simple. The key is to find a good port of entry by determining the point of the story in advance."-Geoff Fuller & Pamelyn Casto

"While many short-shorts rely on a sudden shock at the end-the victim turns out to be the aggressor, the man turns out to be a woman-the most enduring manage not merely to surprise us, but also to transcend their few words. They compound meaning by linking the surface to layers that exist above, behind and beneath them."-Geoff Fuller & Pamelyn Casto

More to come another day.

2006-09-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Flash Fiction, Sudden Fiction, Fast Fiction, Skinny Fiction, Micro Fiction, Short-Short Fiction, Smokelong Fiction, Palm-of-the Hand Fiction, Minute Fiction, Postcard Fiction

So many names for an interesting type of writing.

I'm new to the world of blogging, but not new to the world of flash fiction. I will be discussing this type of writing on my blog. I teach online courses in writing flash fiction through flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html (the four-week courses fill and fill quickly) and my next course will begin October30, 2006. (I also teach online courses in writing haibun.) I'm in the process of creating a new course in flash fiction writing, a course that continues on where my regular flash fiction course leaves off.

I've been fascinated with flash fiction for years now, and Geoff Fuller and I have written and had five articles on the topic published in various Writer's Digest publications.

I also have an online article on the topic of flash fiction at Riding the Meridian http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/meansarticle1.html and at Net Author's E2K http://netauthor.org/e2k/jan2002/features.html1 (This article has also been published at WritingWorld, Fiction Fix, and Whim's Place.)

I'm the administrator for FlashFiction-W http://home.att.net/~p.casto , a free online flash fiction critique group that's been active since 1998. (There's a waiting list to get into the workshop. )

Each month I send out a free online newsletter, FlashFictionFlash, a newsletter for flash literature http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash where I publish markets, contests and publishing news.

So that's a bit about me and what I enjoy. Soon I'll begin blogging on aspects of flash fiction itself. What I hope to do in this blog is also to provide some markets for flash fiction, some book reviews on collections or anthologies that come my way, and to discuss various aspects and issues regarding flash fiction. So stay tuned.