Compression: Erin Dorney
“Compression is strategic inspiration. It is squeezing words into the cross hatched cap of an acorn.” — Erin Dorney
Compression: Chloe Dugger
“I first came to value compression as a painfully shy and extremely observant child. Some experiences are best communicated in the fewest words possible.” — Chloe Dugger
Compression: Buzz Mauro
“Compression in fiction to me means putting two people in a closed space that is too small for them and providing them about 500 words as their only tools for getting out.” — Buzz Mauro
Compression: Dallas Woodburn
“When trying to write about something big and unwieldy and complicated—love, loss, pain, hope, or in my case, motherhood—even a million words would not seem to be enough. How can you capture the whole of something so intangible and ever-changing? The best you can do are glimpses. Compressed, charged moments. That is what I attempted to do in this piece. I think when you limit the words you use, each one takes on more meaning and power.” — Dallas Woodburn
Compression: Jacqueline Saville
“Compression is the art of showing all you’ll ever need to know about the characters, in one snapshot. It also, in this instance, refers to the claustrophobic and physically compressed space they’re in.” — Jacqueline Saville
Compression: Kristina Zdravič Reardon
“With a proper amount of irreverent humility, I charge that the task of the writer of compressed non-fiction is to answer, in as few words as possible, the question: ‘What is the meaning of life?’ Very funny, you say. Yes, it can be. But also: Virginia Woolf poses this question in her novel To the Lighthouse. She is famous for saying that books are mirrors of the soul. This inspires me to think that my attempts are writing are not useless; it is perhaps through the process of writing that we craft our responses to her question, that we capture one moment in the constant re-negotiation of meaning that consists of living mindfully. But Woolf answers her own question more fully than I do: “What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” — Kristina Zdravič Reardon
Compression: A. Werner
“Kafka said that a book should be an ice-axe for the frozen sea within us. Highly compressed fiction is more like the blade of a stiletto. It slides in between our ribs and stays there, quivering.” — A. Werner
Compression: Elizabeth Westmark
“The idea is to apply enough pressure until there is a compression fracture, and all the truth of that time flows, like spinal fluid.” — Elizabeth Westmark
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