How are you doing? Are you writing? Reading? I’m finding both of these things very difficult right now. I call it “pandemic brain.” I’m kind of scattered in the best of times, but now…? But I keep finding things to be grateful for. It’s warmed up here in Colorado at last. One relative in Iowa who’s been in the hospital for Covid-19 for going on four weeks is finally showing some improvement. And I’ve had some very cheering good news on the writing front lately:
A new short short went live today in Issue 45 of NYU Creative Writing Program’s literary journal, Washington Square Review. The issue is chock full of writers I admire, so I’m doubly honored. I’d love for you to read “Today When I Asked You About a Couple We Knew in Canberra.”- My hybrid piece, “See How They Run” originally published in Inverted Syntax has been chosen for Best Small Fictions 2020.
- Randall Brown chose my 2008 flash, “Tenderoni” for the Smokelong Quarterly Archive Pick of the Week.
- And Michael Czyzniejewski featured my story, “There is No Albuquerque” (originally published in Newfound Journal) for his daily story blog, Story366. He also gave a short review of Wild Life: Collected Works (Matter Press, 2018) Here is an excerpt:
“There’s a lot of different kinds of stories in Wild Life, different lengths, different types of protagonists, and some formal endeavors, too: list stories, numbered stories, and a sequence of five micros about Betsy, entitled Five Micros. Within the realm of short-short/abbreviated/flash/micro/sudden/snap/immediate/truncated/urgent fiction, Kathy Fish has probably conquered it all, no matter the size, shape, or tone. Her absurd sense of surrealism, human emotion, interpersonal interaction, and plot shine in every piece.”
As an early editor and practitioner of the form, Czyzniejewski also talks a bit about how flash fiction has evolved:
“Remember when flash fiction was kind of an outlier in terms of fiction genres? Maybe, maybe not. But I seem to recall twenty years ago a dark era when not a lot of people were writing short-short stories, that doing so was considered experimenting.”
I do remember that. Flash has come a long way. Anyway, read the whole post for his insights on this and the blog in general for great daily short story/ flash reviews.
Thanks for stopping by. Sending you all love & well wishes <3
Kathy