SmokeLong Quarterly

What do you love about flash fiction, either as a reader or a writer?

As a writer, I love the challenge of bringing characters to life and thinking of ways to create a resonant story in such a compressed form. As a reader, I love the shock of emotion I feel in a powerful flash piece, and marvel at how the writer has done that so quickly.

Are there certain themes you find yourself returning to in your work?

I often come back to the themes of fraught family relationships or characters who feel they don’t have a sense of belonging in the world. The endless complexities of these themes drive me toward them.

What is the best (or worst) writing advice you’ve received?

I’ve had a lot of great advice over the years. Lately I’ve been reading Alice Mattison’s The Kite and the String. The book is a good reminder to keep a story’s forward momentum going through action (that is, action that also signifies emotion) rather than having emotional reactions only carrying a piece along.

What kind of story would you love to find in the queue this week?

I would love to see stories from the perspective of an outsider (an outsider in comparison to the norms of society, or whatever an “outsider” means to the writer of the story).