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The Matter Press blog contains, for the most part, explorations of the compressed creative arts using the compressed form of the blog entry. It might do other things. One never knows about these things.

Compression: Jeff Mark

“Compression is always and only about economy. If you can say something with 6 words, don’t dare say it in 7. One of the most difficult things to do when writing is be economic with the words. I’ve often thought: short fiction is infinitely more difficult to construct than novel. A haiku, vastly more complex than an epic poem.” — Jeff Mark

Compression: Christina Murphy

“The poet Marianne Moore wrote that ‘compression is the first grace of style.’ Who am I to disagree with that? Or even to expand upon it—although I will. If you think compression is just making things smaller, tighter, more elliptical, you have missed the boat of meaning that should be sailing in your poem. If you think that it takes vision to express ideas in words that engage the reader’s imagination, then compression is a synthesis of insight and form that creates a powerful fictive universe via ‘the first grace of style.’” — Christina Murphy

Compression: Blaze Dzikowski

“Compression allows you to deliver a straight blow without dancing and blabbing and waving your arms all around first.” — Blaze Dzikowski

Compression: Maria Ceferatti

“Compression, like the efficient pulsing of one’s heart, holds in a small space the core, the life force of its characters.” — Maria Ceferatti

Compression: Chad Patton

“There are times when a writer is able to concentrate a group of different stories into a brief interaction of careful syntax. The ability to compress a story is a representation of mutual respect between author and reader. The author respects the reader enough to understand her or his intentionally unfilled gaps, whereas the reader respects the author for his or her trust. Compressed literature, as a medium, creates a more exaggeratedly conducive symbiosis between reader and writer. The writer, in less words (or, equivalently, less interactions) must analogously and literally tell multiple stories as to live up to the expectations of a larger story, the one of which the compressed is only a snippet.” — Chad Patton

Compression: Jeanne Holtzman

“Compression to me is the disturbing tiny pea under the Princess’s many mattresses.” — Jeanne Holtzman

Compression: Rumjhum Biswas

“Compression (to me) means a story made so compact that its sheer gravitational pull creates a point of no return for the reader, regardless of the story’s mood. This is something that I try to achieve in my own work. I try.” — Rumjhum Biswas

Compression: Mark Gordon

“Compression in poetry for me means to capture something about life that is fleeting and poignant, without sacrificing rhythm, image, or language, as an afternoon might be reflected in a dragonfly’s wings.” — Mark Gordon

Compression: Karen Dietrich

“I have always felt compelled to create compressed pieces, whether poetry or prose. I like to place the dots on the grid and let the reader connect them. I’m concerned with what happens in the white space of the mind after the story or poem ends.” — Karen Dietrich

Compression: Elizabeth Eidlitz

“Compressed feelings eventually force their way out, however indirectly.” — Elizabeth Eidlitz