So aside from having been nominated for a Pushcart, which is still pretty cool, what's new? I have a short piece coming out in The Writer's Post Journal called "The Ring" and another piece of flash fiction coming out in The Vestal Review in January called "Quitting Smoking." I just read a (an old one, admittedly--2004) scathing article about flash fiction by the editor of Storysouth about how flash fiction is really just drivel being pumped out by mediocre MFA students. I'm thinking of the short story by Hemingway called "A Short Story" or work by Mary Robison. If the short story "Yours" isn't considered to be flash fiction--well. This editor does admit that some stories are gifted and need to be told that way, but I wondered why all the vitriolic attitude. There are mediocre full-length stories and mediocre full-length novels being published, too. It's its own art form. I think some stories just want to be told that way. I did agree with his opinions about Amy Hempl's piece and how it is an easy way to publication. But...it's not always easy to get flash published either. There are some great flash websites, magazines, and anthologies: Smokelong Quarterly, Quick Fiction, Sudden Fiction. Maybe his opinion has changed since 2004, though. storySouth / MFA disgust, flash fiction, short shorts, and micro fiction
Places You Can Find my Work in Literary Magazines
- Jamey Genna
- Switchback 2010, "If It Hasn't Already. OxMag, "This Scarred Wish," 2010. Midway Journal, "The Carnival Has Come to Town." Crab Orchard Review, "Goat Herder," Summer 2010. Stone's Throw Magazine, "Always Say Sorry," 2010. Eleven Eleven, "Rat Stories," 2010. You Must Be This Tall to Ride, "Yeah, But Nobody Hates Their Dad," Oct., 2009. 580 Split, "In the Shed," Creative Nonfiction, 2009. Farallon Review, "A Good Swim," Short story, 2008. Iowa Review, "Dry and Yellow," Short short story, Spring, 2008. Short story, "Stories I heard when I went home for my grandmother's funeral," Storyglossia, 2007, Issue 24. (Nominated for a Pushcart Prize) Short story, "Turtles Don't Have Hair," Dislocate, 2007. Short story, "Itinerary for the Tourist," Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, 2007. Flash fiction, "The Wind Chill Factor Kicked In," Blue Earth Review, 2006. Short story, "Making Quota," Pinyon, Spring, 2006. Short story,"The Play," Shade, 2006. Short story, "Anecdote City," Colere, 2005. Short story, "Hummingbird," Georgetown Review, 2005. Short story, "The Light in the Alley," literary anthology Times of Sorrow / Times of Grace2002.
4 comments:
Flash Fiction is an art form. It is a difficult art form. One day it will take its rightful place along side the poem, short story, novel and play as one of the great art forms of literature; and I don't think that day is too far away.
I agree with your reservations about the vitriolic article on flash fiction.
Does the author of that article think John Updike, Grace Paley, Francine Prose, and Dave Eggers are mediocre MFA types? All of them have published short-shorts.
Inspired by the short-shorts in Janet Burroway's WRITING FICTION, I wrote several short-shorts and posted a review of her book on amazon. Five of my short-shorts appear in the Fall 2007 issue of ZYZZYVA magazine.
I've signed up for your course in Berkeley.
C J Singh, drcj@berkeley.edu
It's nice to know there's support for this art form. I do enjoy writing longer fiction and don't necessarily have a preference. I think I grew up on long jokes told around the table, playing cards and appreciate a short story that has that ironic twist like Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour."
oh don't listen to the sourpusses.
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