Amidst graduation and moving across the state, I let the publication of my very short story “Did You Hear About Lauren?” in Microliterature pass me by. But it’s out, and I still like it, and you should go read it now.
I have another very short story in thickjam. It’s called The Cobblestones Will See Me Grow.
I have a new (actually old) story up in the very new site thickjam (specializing in the shorts that are “substantial, sticky and hard to rub off”). It’s called Turkey on Wheat. Yes, it’s a play on Bukowski’s Ham on Rye. I like a good Jewish rye, but I don’t eat ham.
Last month Michael Rudin (author of nano #147) published his piece “From Hemingway to Twitterature: The Short and Shorter of It” in the Journal of Electronic Publishing. It’s a thoughtful academic look at the different ways we’re writing (short and cheap) in the digital age that also includes a couple selections from the Nanoism archives and a quote from yours truly.
Second, the 7×20 twitter anthology 140 And Counting
And I never thought I would say this, but Nanoism’s first wholly independent native-language international chapter is open! In Swedish! Check out Nanoismer, and click over here for a little bit of background.
Finally, Nanoism’s 2011 contest is now open until the end of New Year’s day 2012. For those of you keeping track at home, the format is similar to last year with both free entries, raffle prizes, and more chances to win if you donate to charity.
Necessary Fiction has a neat premise for their rotating monthly Writer-in-Residence series. For January, it’s been “First Footing,” where each story begins with the last sentence of another story by another author. For example, Marcelle Heath (who incidentally wrote several of my favorite pieces in Nanoism) used nano #249 by Martha Williams as the basis for her story “Nothing Good Can Come of This.”
My own contribution is another piece arising from my continuing preoccupation with short fiction based on Craigslist postings: “+1 for a circle of friends?“
As time marches on, the number of Twitter-based books continues to increase. There’s the crowd-sourced book of clever tweets in Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less; there are the celebrity cash-in’s, like Dennis Leary’s new twitter-feed on paper, Suck On This Year: LYFAO @ 140 Characters or Less; not to mention the countless (and useless) books about Twitter itself (social media, networking, style guides, how to make “friends”, etc etc etc). There is no irony when using paper to talk about the internet in the publishing industry.
However—
There is only one carefully curated Twitter-based creative writing anthology. And that book is On a Narrow Windowsill (Kindle version
First, Zine-Scene (a blog, lit-mag, lit-mag highlighter, etc) features a profile of Nanoism and interview with me. The overview is here, with links to both. Good times were had by all.
Second, you may remember my very short story “When We Are Old” from its publication in Dogzplot. You then might remember it as a audio piece when Mel Bowsworth read it outloud at Mel Bosworth Reads Things. Now, it’s also a song:
“When We Are Old” is track 4 out of 7 on First Snow, a free, folksy Lo-Fi album by Archbishop, which you can grab right here for nothing (because it’s free).
With November comes the release of your #1 bestselling anthology on Amazon: Norton’s Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, edited by Robert Swartwood. It contains a blurb from Jodi Picoult and stories from me (“Before Perseus”), Joyce Carol Oates, and James Frey (among many others), so go read it. Everyone else obviously is!
No, but really. This is a fun book. It’s a great concept (nanofiction with punchlines!), and there’s plenty of variety littered throughout to guarantee some will resonate with every reader.
I’m super pleased to say that my story “Cryo” is Folded Word’s third issue of Heron, a minimag that you can read, listen to, download, or print out and fold your own.
What an honor! Go read it!
I have a new piece of Craigslist Fiction up today at Staccato Fiction. It’s nice and short and you can read it here.
You could, with a few bucks to spare, also buy the first issue of Thirty First Bird Review and read my story “The Presentation of the Virgin.”