Weird Words: Cathy Ulrich Interviews Me about “Five Micros” at Pidgeonholes

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with the lovely and talented Cathy Ulrich at Pidgeonholes. She asked some great questions about my series of Five Micros published there a few months ago. Here is an excerpt of the interview:

“ULRICH: What I love about these interconnected pieces is how much history they hold, how expansive they feel for their tininess. How do you manage that trick of making something so small seem so very large?

FISH: Thank you, Cathy. I think if you write a lot of flash fiction, you learn to find these sort of signifiers in a character’s life that have an encompassing feel to them. So with Betsy, I touched on a few things that give a sense of the entire arc of her life. And they don’t all have to be Big Moments. I think it’s a signifier for Betsy when she copes with the Lamb boys by “chalking unflattering likenesses of [them] on her driveway.” And I announce that as a signifier in the title, “Betsy Becomes an Artist.” And each micro is another example of Betsy’s “becoming.” And then I found ways to show the passage of time in the growth of the sugar maple, the changes in the families on the cul-de-sac and so forth.”

You can read the rest of the interview HERE.

And here is my series of micros: Five Micros.

Many thanks to Cathy and everyone at Pidgeonholes. If you aren’t familiar with this journal, do go and read everything they publish. They have fast become one of the most innovative, daring, and gorgeous lit journals out there. They aim to publish fearless literature and man, do they ever. Here is their mission:

“We seek to publish work with the grit of heavy-duty sandpaper: words that will tear and scar. Send us your literary, speculative, experimental, or absurdly unclassifiable, just make it bold and beautiful.”

Send them your best!