And The Winner Is:
First Place in our Short Short Story Contest goes to Mr. Michael Maiello and his wonderfully succinct yet amazingly punchy piece, If Someone Secretly Controlled What You Say, Would You Notice?
Our choice for Honorable Mention goes to Mr. Seth Augenstein with the exceptionally short and incredibly moving Robbing Papa.
Congratulations to both Michael and Seth. We hope you enjoy their pieces as much as we do.
As you may know, the contest was judged by the winner of our previous fiction contest, Brandi Wells. In honor of the short short contest, we asked her some short questions to which she provided a couple short answers. Enjoy.
Brandi, what do you look for in an effective micro-short?
"I think all writing, but particularly very short writing, ought to be immediately interesting. I want to care about the language, the scene, what's happening. And it ought to do something that could only be done in a very small space, otherwise why work in that small space?"
How is your new novella, This Boring Apocalypse, informed by micro-shorts?
"The book is made up of short pieces that ideally work together narratively and thematically to make something larger. But many of the short sections are intended to stand alone as well. I like longer work that's in short pieces. That's how my brain works.
This page on my website links to published sections of the novella: brandiwells.com."
How's that for short?