Flash Fiction Festival 2021: the Virtual’ing
Hi friends. We’ve once again partnered with our buddies over at A Novel Idea to host the Flash Fiction Festival. Given the state of the apocalypse we are all currently living in, this year it will be virtual. As much as we’d love to see your beautiful and darling faces in person (like last year’s party), […]
Elliot Polinksy on Stephen King
1. I’m ten years old, my family’s moved to a new neighborhood near the edge of the city and it feels distant, suburban. My friends are the old place, where my childhood heart is too. I’ve been reading books since birth but the new, arguably stubborn isolation of my days opens a moment where reading […]
“Write what you know”
“Write what you know” by fiction editor, Douglas Menagh “Write what you know” is advice every writer has heard at some point in their life. It’s a cliché, and not without reason. Exploring the known makes sense when writing about what it’s like to be someone else. The whole point of reading is to get […]
An Artist’s Perspective on the Literature of Passion: White Heat
Under tan, stained skin This blood screams for it Like the whistle from your teapot Taste me you’ll taste the truth Wasn’t made to wait I was made to make Take, tear, sigh, leak for this Drip Drip Lips pulling my skin inside You – me – him – you too None of us […]
Overcoming Your Internal Critic
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing and wondering whether I have anything worthwhile to say about it. There’s always that same element of self-doubt when you’re about to embark on any writing project: “Is this going to be good enough? Am I going to be good enough?” You can read what others have written and […]
The morning after
we emerge scorched earth chap-lipped rye ringing in our ears a four year dissonance we do not understand our brows furrowed in disappointment we gather share parka share hijab against cold new wind pass the conch our mouths agape a joint or three between fingers raised in mock peace we yell a chasm in unison […]
a millennial prayer
may our grams be insta-liked, our fingers knuckle crack scrolling scrolling our eyes seeing everything and nothing, may our texts be addressed promptly, no three mean dots stuck between I love you (or whatever) and I’ve already forgotten where your birthmarks live, may we find purpose on a park bench overlooking a city we’ve […]
Focusing on Writing
What I’ve learned about writing productively is it all comes down to focusing on my goals, and writers can’t possibly do that effectively without actually being aware of what their goals actually are. Think of it like trying to stuff an arrow down the barrel of a gun and then trying to shoot at a […]
The Gold Spike
I lived in Las Vegas from summer 1991 until September 1992. My first husband was Air Force, stationed at Nellis. We got married my senior year of college (the first gulf war helped me into a bad decision) and I moved out west after I graduated. We lived in an apartment complex on N. Nellis […]
Old Donald Had A Farm
He ate all the pigs first because the Old Testament said he couldn’t. Then he ate the horses, because the Dutch consider it delicacy and he dislikes animals who appear to work harder than him. Eh oh, eh oh, ee. He rounded up the rest in the barn. The heifer was worried her milk would […]
