Saturday, December 15, 2007

Upcoming flash fiction publications

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

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

Jamey Genna said...

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."

Glenn Ingersoll said...

oh don't listen to the sourpusses.