IN A FLASH Is Open For November Submissions!
From November 1-15, please submit flash nonfiction on the theme of BODY.
We’re Open!
Our November submissions call opens TODAY! From November 1-15, please submit flash nonfiction (500 words or fewer) on the theme of BODY. Full guidelines are here, and please read them carefully. After receiving some insightful questions from thoughtful readers, we added a few clarifications.
Our first author-featured issue will be published in January. As a reminder, each issue will include one piece of excellent flash nonfiction accompanied by our reasons for choosing the piece and a Q&A with the author. (We can’t wait!) Please subscribe now so you don’t miss it, and share this post with a friend who might like to read or contribute!
And Now, Some Of Our Faves!
Since we’re still editing our first issue, today we’re each sharing a beloved piece of flash. We hope it will inspire you! (Note to writers: this is a great way to get a sense of our individual tastes!)
Nina loves Where the Dust Goes by Diane Gottlieb in Brevity, September 2024.
In Nina’s words: “This essay by Diane Gottlieb left me gobsmacked. When my eyes hit the last line, I felt a rush of emotions so strong that my body shuddered, and not only did I get teary eyed, her beautiful writing made me weep. (Sob.) The way she shows us the progression by hour of the day when the worst thing that can happen, happens, pulled me in, living the progression from normalcy to nightmare with the author. I also find the use of second person POV especially powerful. While we know the narrator addresses herself as another to afford some emotional distance from the day everything changed, it also effectively involves the reader. Hence the visceral reaction at the end.”
Cindy loves My Children Explain The Big Issues by Will Baker, In Short, 2004.
In Cindy’s words: “In this playful collage, Baker probes the meaning of such heavy concepts as feminism, fate, existentialism, and the difference between East and West. Each short piece is a scene between the writer and one of his three children: 23-month-old Montana, three-year old Cole and six-year-old Willa. With a line or two of dialogue, the children sum up what philosophers and sages often spend a lifetime pondering. The reader can’t help but smile.”
Leanne loves We Dive by Sara Freligh in Cease Cows, January 2019.
In Leanne’s words: “I adore the cadence of this piece. Each segment has a set-up, a turn, and a closing. In just three segments, Freligh breaks your heart over these girls— who are not they, but we. Even women who don’t have the specific experience of summers at a public swimming pool can feel, on a gut-wrenching level, the passage of time during those adolescent years and how the male gaze worked on us. This is what’s special about this piece: it’s a brilliant example of how the specific can be turned universal, and that gives me a deep zing of resonance.”
Casey loves 21 Allen Drive by Diane Gottlieb in Smokelong Quarterly, September 2022.
In Casey’s words: “Gottlieb takes us from a list essay with well-chosen visual and auditory details that place us firmly in the scene to a shocking turn at the end—shocking to the writer as she lived it and to readers as we learn of it. She exercises restraint both in selecting the details she shares with us and, most notably, in telling just enough in the last paragraph for us to be astounded by what we infer has happened. The result is a moving experience for the reader in just 186 words. Brilliant.”
Did you notice that both Casey and Nina chose pieces by Diane Gottlieb? This was a pure coincidence! We decided to share both, rather than try and find another author, because each essay resonated so strongly with our editors. Clearly, Diane Gottlieb is a flash writer worth exploring!
Kate loves Astonish by Diane Zinna in Brevity, May 2024.
In Kate’s words: “This brilliant piece weaves ordinary definitions - astonish, astonishment, astound - together with a heart-breaking and heart-stopping tale of a pre-teen dare gone terribly wrong. Zinna’s juxtaposition of medieval definition and timeless fear evoke the rising humiliation and panic in our pre-teen narrator, and her vivid prose ("The night is all hands, grasping like a mother, furious at this and concerned.”) evokes the terror of the young girl’s dash through the rain.”
Did you enjoy exploring these pieces? What’s your favorite?
And now— let’s light up the comments with YOUR favorite flash pieces! GO!
Upcoming Themes
From November 1-15, please submit pieces on the theme of BODY.
From December 1-15, please submit pieces on the theme of RHYTHM.
From January 1-15, please submit pieces on the theme of DREAMS.
From February 1-15, please submit pieces on the theme of GROWTH.
News from the In A Flash Community!
In Case You Missed It…
Did you miss our editor introductions? Meet our founding editors through their previously published flash essays:
Editor News
Kate Lewis will teach four sessions at the upcoming Hampton Roads Writers’ Conference Nov. 7-9 on essays, editing, op-eds, and flash. Visit www.hamptonroadswriters.org to learn more.
Nina & Maine Writers Studio is running a 4-hr generative (& hybrid: in person and Zoom) writing workshop on Dec. 15 from 10-2 on "The Places We Belong (or not)." We Will Consider PLACES: How They Shape Us, Why They Call Us Back, and How We Can Put Them to Use in Our Craft. You can find out more and register HERE.
Keep reading, writing and subscribing! We can’t wait to read your work.
Cheers,
The In A Flash Editors
OMGoodness! I am incredibly honored--absolutely gobsmacked (to borrow a word from Nina)! Thank you so much Nina and Casey for your kind words about my flashes! Both pieces you mentioned are about my first husband's death. It'll be 20 years November 9th, so this post also feels like a wonderful tribute to him! Soooo excited to see what you all will publish! Wishing you the very best of luck! XO
I love the pieces you shared and am looking forward to reading more.