Today was chapbook (and other slim small press volume) catchup day. I read a whole bunch of things in one day and now am a little bit exhausted. I read, all in one day and in the following order--
~A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Fiction by Four Women, by Kathy Fish, Amy L Clark, Elizabeth Ellen and Claudia Smith.
~Phantasmagoria by Thomas Cooper
~Typewriter by Jimmy Chen
~Haircut Stories by Lydia Copeland
~The Collectors by Matt Bell
~A Jello Horse by Matthew Simmons
~Everything was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin
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What did you think of Phantasmagoria? I'm intrigued by it.
Happy birthday, BTW.
Phantasmagoria was pretty fantastic. He's a little bit Etgar Keretish. I liked it a lot.
"A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness" is wonderful, and I especially liked Kathy Fish and Claudia Smith's chapbooks -- sort of good examples of realist-type flash fiction at its most mature.
But I think my favorite thing of the day was "A Jello Horse." ...I connected with it quite a bit. Was also interesting to learn I'm not alone in writing second person shit abt freaky animal dreams.
"Typerwriter" was fucking hysterical, had to read a few pieces aloud to my partner who is 14 years older and often has a few things to say abt our generation's obsession with its own web-based reflection.
Lydia Copeland's pieces (she's a friendly acquaintance from zoetrope virtual studio) seem better described as prose poems than flash fiction -- most are language-based and reflective descriptions of moments and aren't necessarily interested in conflict or tension or any of those things that constitute plot. But the pictures she paints with words are quite lovely.
Everybody has already said a lot abt the Collectors and how great it is, but I would add that what I found most compelling wasn't necessarily the story of the Collyer brothers, but rather the sort-of metanarrative abt the narrator's own obsession w/ the brothers, and the narrator's attempt to unravel that obsession. Very cool.
I may have read Chelsea Martin's stuff too late in the day, but I was alternately cracking up and asking what the fuck. She might be a good-in-small doses writer for me.
(hmm... maybe I should add these comments to the entry proper).
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