Finding great flash fiction

sketchyfish

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I was wondering how everyone actually goes about finding flash fiction. Do you follow a particular great author? Or do you just stick to magazines and stuff that is published online?


The reason I ask is because I'm interested in finding the best of the best (learn from the best kinda thing), and it's proving difficult.


I'm looking for something concise. Thanks!
 

Jane Berry

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Daily Science Fiction has recently made an editorial change to publish flash fiction Monday through Thursday, and traditional short story length on Fridays. The stories do only come in only scifi flavors, but signing up is free and they're conveniently delivered to your inbox daily.

My only issue with DSF is that the quality can vary. There are some items in there which probably wouldn't have made it past a slush reader at a different publication.

http://dailysciencefiction.com
 

Fruitbat

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Oh gosh, there are so many...Here are a couple of my favorite print flash anthologies. I think they give a good overview of different styles and such since so many authors are included:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393328023/?tag=absowrit-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393308839/?tag=absowrit-20

A few of my favorite free online flash ezines: Wigleaf, fwriction, Smokelong, Nano Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Apocrypha and Abstractions, Word Riot, Bartleby Snopes, PANK, Monkeybicycle, Frigg, Storyglossia and many more.

But if you asked a dozen people which ones are best, you'd likely get as many different answers. I'd just read lots of them, wherever you find them. Personally, I haven't found the popularity or price of the publication to be all that accurate a measure of story quality. With any of them, in my opinion some are good, some aren't, in varying degrees. Those that stand out to you are probably the ones you'll learn the most from for your own writing.
 
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kennyc

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Oh gosh, there are so many...Here are a couple of my favorite print flash anthologies. I think they give a good overview of different styles and such since so many authors are included:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393328023/?tag=absowrit-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393308839/?tag=absowrit-20
......

Yep, those are both wonderful! As is Flash Fiction Youth (though not quite as good for me) also the Sudden Fiction anthologies ... but they are longer than most flash fiction stories.

Single author collections - Stuart Dybek - The Coast of Chicago
Lydia Davis - The Collected Stories and Can't and Won't
and David Shumate has three collections of prose poetry that are pretty much the same as flash fiction also Nin Andrews (prose poet).

I've been reading/studying/writing/learning Flash - both fiction and nonfiction as well as prose poetry and there is a very large overlap in the venn diagram of them when overlapped. :)

I'm currently working on putting together my own collection(s) of possibly each or possibly a 'merged' version containing all of the above. :)

Go Flash!
 

Cybernaught

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I really enjoy Every Day Fiction. They send a new piece of flash fiction to your inbox each day.
 

kennyc

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Oh gosh, there are so many...Here are a couple of my favorite print flash anthologies. I think they give a good overview of different styles and such since so many authors are included:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393328023/?tag=absowrit-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393308839/?tag=absowrit-20

A few of my favorite free online flash ezines: Wigleaf, fwriction, Smokelong, Nano Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Apocrypha and Abstractions, Word Riot, Bartleby Snopes, PANK, Monkeybicycle, Frigg, Storyglossia and many more.

But if you asked a dozen people which ones are best, you'd likely get as many different answers. I'd just read lots of them, wherever you find them. Personally, I haven't found the popularity or price of the publication to be all that accurate a measure of story quality. With any of them, in my opinion some are good, some aren't, in varying degrees. Those that stand out to you are probably the ones you'll learn the most from for your own writing.

Yep, those are some of the very best!
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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Seizure is an Australian publication that has a whole section for flash (called "Flashers") - http://seizureonline.com/category/flashers/. They put out some really, really good stuff.

I also highly recommend these two books (also Australian):

Captives by Angela Meyer is entirely microfiction http://inkermanandblunt.com/home/projects/captives/

Tarcutta Wake by Josephine Rowe is all short fiction, with some truly excellent bits of flash http://www.readings.com.au/products/15221476/tarcutta-wake
 

kennyc

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I love flash and I've been focused not quite exclusively on flash fiction, prose poetry, microfiction/drabble most of this year. I'll mention a few online and print publications that I've been reading/impressed with.

Microfiction Monday Magazine (and not just because they recently accepted one of mine. :) )
Smokelong Quarterly
Flash Fiction Online
Vestal Review
Nanofiction
Dogzplot
Everyday Fiction
50 Word Stories
Matchbook
Pleiades
Camroc Press
Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
Penny Fiction
Eunoia Review (my piece Smokejumper was published there recently)

Enjoy!
 
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flowerburgers

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Peter Orner is a genius and most of his work is under 1,000 words. Highly recommend Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge.
 

kennyc

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Did I mention Lydia Davis? Stuart Dybek? David Shumate? Jayne Anne Phillips? :)
 
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