Compression: John C. Mannone
The universe of stars, once compressed smaller than the moon, expanded and filled with a hundred billion galaxies, each of them with a hundred billion stars. And that’s just what we can see. In my universe of words—even sounds and their textures—compress until the space between the letters is indistinguishable from them. And time suspends. Blank space on paper, filled with rich invisibility, with imagination, speaks as loudly as stellar words themselves. — John C. Mannone
Compression: Nils Peterson
“The most in the least. An exciting discipline.”
— Nils Peterson
Compression: Jen Daniels
“In an intensely compressed text, each word is allowed to resonate fully, and the gaps or elisions are as important as the inclusions. This, for me, replicates my lived experience, in which so much is unsaid, unexplained, but only seemingly sudden.” — Jen Daniels
Compression: Joe Kapitan
“Compression, to me, isn’t so much about size or lack thereof as it is about form or lack thereof. Can you take the fundamental elements of a story and put them somewhere else—hide them in a map, slide them into a list, let them be parasitic to something else? A story without that story form. A story virus.” — Joe Kapitan
Compression: Courtney Kilian
“Compression is writing of tiny proportions with explosive power. Petite texts that are potent enough to ebb from their limiting paginal (or screen-abiding) structures.” — Courtney Kilian
Compression: Liz Haigh
“Initially I was not keen on the word compression, as it rhymes with lots of unpleasant words like oppression and depression. But I think compression attached to art and flash fiction is a good thing, because it’s all about making the maximum use of a few words.” — Liz Haigh
Compression: Len Joy
“When you’re young, you take a job and you think it’s just until something better comes along. But then the days turn into weeks and the week into years and before you know it you’re an old man and your life is over and all you have are memories and regrets.” — Len Joy
Compression: Vanessa Gebbie
“Compression: a complex concept. Like an essence, perhaps compression works best when the reader adds their own concentration and the result is something far greater than word count. The reader is so important, and part of his role is to pick up the echoes and allow them to resonate.” — Vanessa Gebbie
Compression: Caroline Challinor
“The story depicts a universal emotion as its theme through the medium of a compressed work of fiction, the words containing all the basic elements of fiction: setting, character, plot, conflict, symbol, and POV.” — Caroline Challinor
Compression: Sandra Soli
“Compression in language holds a complete synergy with the landscape of fantasy and its relationship to the expanding imagination; open any of the possible doors to find an unexpected vision that appears simultaneously foreign yet mysteriously familiar.” — Sandra Soli
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