“Compression, when I think about art and writing, relates to certain notions of the MIND. Personal history, cultural history, fancy, fantasy and dreams are all at play when we have a conversation about art and when we create expression. Writing with these ideas in mind, the present moment ends up becoming squished down into a little dot, a point of connection, but the connections are too many and happen too quickly to shake out the relationships between ideas. So, considering compression while writing is a bit like watching a circus out of the corner of your eye. This piece in particular tries to paint an “emotional idea” through references to fantasy and history.” — Eric Martin



“When I scroll back through the most important moments of my life, there is a certain quality to the memories, as if time itself was compressed. I once read a scientific article about memories being seared into our brains due to strong emotions we were feeling at the time. This makes sense in fiction, too. I remember my favorite books for specific scenes or surprising moments that made the book real for me, moments in which the outside world fell away completely and all that existed was the sentence I was reading. I think, in order to process strong emotion, compression is necessary. I write flash fiction because there is no other way I can write such a story. It exists in the moment of compression, and to try to write it any other way would feel inauthentic and diluted.” — Dallas Woodburn
“I see it more as a process of dissection or subtraction, cutting away anything unnecessary with Occam’s Razor to reveal the vital organs, all that is essential to the life force of this story.” — Amanda Yskamp
“A few seconds of memory from childhood that haunt us in nightmares and flashbacks through to adulthood—the seemingly innocent toy that we feared for unclear reason, that menace with parts that weren’t detachable, frozen forever as one with its tricycle, or inside a car, on a merry-go- round. A hand-me-down we never really wanted but were supposed to laugh at or be entertained by. Those few clockwork seconds, breeding nightmares in fevers ever since.” — Jessie Nash
“One of the defining characteristics of poetry for me is that it suggests a lot with a little. Prose can be discursive, but I see poetry as the most concentrated form of literary expression. It’s the difference, if you will, between the spread of a shotgun blast and the precision of a rifle shot. I am attracted to prose poetry in part because it can exploit this difference. A prose poem looks like prose, but acts like poetry, beautiful in its ambiguity” — Howie Good
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Upcoming:
03/23 • Kenneth Pobo
03/30 • Roberta Allen
04/06 • Avril Shakira Villar
04/13 • TBD
04/20 • TBD
04/27 • TBD
05/04 • TBD
05/11 • TBD
05/18 • TBD
05/25 • TBD
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
07/13 • TBD
07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
08/10 • TBD
08/17 • TBD
08/24 • TBD
08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD