Index of Placebo Effects
Now available is our third title, Carol Guess’s Index of Placebo Effects, a collection of flash fiction. $6.95 + $3.00 shipping.
Carol Guess explains, “This tiny book is based on the index of my father’s co-edited anthology, The Science of the Placebo. I selected terms from the index of his book and used them to organize a fractured, fragmented narrative that was originally part of a longer manuscript titled Hand mit Ringen. While I was working on Doll Studies: Forensics, I winnowed part of that longer manuscript into the story of a vet returning from WWII. It appears in Doll Studies as “Departure Lounge.” Then I worried and revised and changed the remaining material, adding and subtracting, returning to the original narrative: the story of two women, a plane crash, and too many cameras. Guided at first by the NATO phonetic alphabet, I eventually used the index of my father’s book to structure their story, which became Index of Placebo Effects. As always, I miss my father, and wish I could share this process with him. I suppose the path to scientific discovery is not that different from the path to a story: hard work and happy accidents.”
Carol Guess is the author of ten books: Seeing Dell, Switch, Gaslight, Femme’s Dictionary, Love Is A Map I Must Not Set On Fire, Tinderbox Lawn, Homeschooling, Darling Endangered, My Father In Water, And Doll Studies: Forensics. She teaches creative writing and queer studies at Western Washington University, where she is Professor of English. you can email her at carolannguess (at) gmail (dot) com.
Or send a check for $10.00 ($7.00 + $3.00 shipping) to:
Matter Press
PO Box 704
Wynnewood, PA 19096
We are overcome with joy to make the following nominations:
BEST SMALL FICTIONS
Catherine Bai • “Your Body Knows Things You Never Could”
Robert McBrearty • “About Time”
Sarah Daly • “First Woman”
Michael Mirolla • “My Left Thumb”
Chao Wang • “My Allergies Stayed”
Best of the Net 2027
Lucy Zhang
“Breach”
Isabelle Ness
“Goblin Toes”
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Upcoming:
10/19 • Katherine Garrison
10/12 • Kathy Fish
10/19 • Katherine Garrison
10/26 • Beverly Jackson
11/02 • Robert Scotellaro
11/09 • T.L. Sherwood
11/16 • Susan Buchler
11/23 • Chelsea Stickle
11/30 • TBD
12/07 • TBD
12/14 • TBD
12/21 • TBD
12/28 • TBD