Compression: Andrew Stancek
“Life turns, often, on a single moment. In compression a writer identifies that drop of water on the placid lake, and the rings emanating from it.” — Andrew Stancek
Compression: Kathleen Brewin Lewis
“Compression/distillation = potency/impact. Why blather on about something when you can get right to the poetic point? Compress your thoughts to catch and retain your reader.” — Kathleen Brewin Lewis
Compression: Leia Wilson
“On compression: I like tiny things. Especially tiny cakes, tiny layered cakes. And cupcakes.” — Leia Wilson
Compression: Paul Luikart
“Compressed fiction is fiction that leaves the reader with an indentation in his or her spirit, an indentation of a particular place and set of characters. The story (i.e. what actually happens in the piece) is still important but, though it does not take a back seat to this kind of indentation, it certainly sits next to it.” — Paul Luikart
Compression: Guy Traiber
“Everything was in the vacuum before the big BANG. Everything is included in the little seed. I am one of Avraham’s promised grains of sand.” — Guy Traiber
Compression: Jude Marr
“compression = expansion, implied” — Jude Marr
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
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