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Short Story Shoutout
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There are many ghosts floating through Mina Austin's “Walk” (3,200 words, Post Road Magazine), but thematically that ghost is 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛; how hard it is to establish it between people, never mind between people and animals. How hard it is to really 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛.
@postroadmag.bsky.social
Link here:
Short Story Shoutout
In "Ancestral Milk" (in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬) Paige Kaptuch takes one woman’s struggle with pregnancy and childbirth after a cross-country move and elevates it, through a special brand of expository pyrotechnics, to a kind of time-travel-lite. To four-dimensional story telling.
Themes in short stories are best deployed as apparitions. They float like ghosts through great works. We catch fleeting glimpses of them, just enough to feel their presence, but not so much that we feel the heavy hand of message.
“Open for fiction submission” on 6/1:
𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 is published four times a year: including a prose issue in the summer, and a special longform issue in the fall. Spring and summer issues are guest-edited by different writers of prominence.
word count limit: 6,500
The first thing that will jump out at you about “𝐕𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐟” (3,100 words) by Caroline Giudice in 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋, is its period-piece-ness. It feels like it’s trapped in the amber of some long-ago, while somehow remaining a romance tailored for today.
@mrbullbull.bsky.social @
A quick reminder of why we're here: 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.
Hemingway, Carver, Cheever, Saunders, O'Connor, Chekhov - all fantastic. But new writers are bringing it every week, and we bring them to you.
Join us, won't you?
You’ll remember writer 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐞 from last week’s Shoutout “Van Cleef” in 𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞.
Her website 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫 gives you more to dig into, including her story collection “The Knockers.” Please consider subscribing to her newsletter.
Looking forward to more, Caroline!
Big Shoutout to fellow PNW writer 𝐊𝐢𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 - his short story “Horn of Plenty” appears in the latest issue of 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡!
@kittrick.bsky.social @pinchjournal.bsky.social
More about Kit’s fantastic writing here: kittrick.co/writing
“You’re an unemployed grown man still living with his mother! That’s what you are! You’ve turned idleness into a bloody job description and expected us all to clap along.”
The chatter in the pub dipped. Van Cleef didn’t move.
𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗚𝗶𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗲'𝘀 "𝐕𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐟" 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞:
David Foster Wallace: “the most important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”
These realities are not talked about in “The Fishless Cycle,” but they are floating around all the characters.
What 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 said carries more weight than what is addressed directly.
Tales of the Hidden Hour. Within these pages, tales of small-town lives unfold—featuring characters both ordinary and enigmatic: some married, some not; some young, some old—each bearing their own cro...
