Top Five: Matt Runkle

Top 5 Pieces of Tone
 inspired by a class taught by Arda Collins

1. Thanksgiving
Something that hovers between ritual and neutrality
Examples: fake wood laminate, canola oil, soap, oatmeal

2. Diminishing blister
The regaining of control after a rough patch
Examples: trichotilomania, clean sheets

3. Selsun Blue
Pleasingly sharp and insidious
Examples: creosote, Good Humor strawberry shortcake bar

4. Glory Be
A type of propaganda that transcends itself and grows warm
Examples: Sunday, August, Jehovah’s Witness tract, waiting room bibles for children

5. Muddled reflection
A satisfying loss of identity

— Matt Runkle

(more…)

Top Five: Rebecca Aronson

My list of top 5 things of anything related to writing

1. Arm chair in spot of sun
2. Cup of coffee, gone cold
3. Fingernails cut short
4. Stacks of books
5. A Friday at home, house to myself, writing

 — Rebecca Aronson

(more…)

Top Five: Michael Chacko Daniels

Top five writing-related list

1. Getting to the big through the small.
2. Often, getting there through the glimpsing of opposites.
3. In writing, less is better than more. Less is more.
4. Having the liberty to know, to utter, to argue.
5. Writing according to one’s conscience.

— Michael Chacko Daniels

(more…)

Top Five: Bruce Boston

5 Things About Writing

1. Write what you know.
2. Write what you understand.
3. Write what you feel.
4. Write what you can imagine.
5. Write…don’t type!

— Bruce Boston

(more…)

Top Five: Ron Singer

Among My Compressed Favorites

1. Epigrams by Dorothy Parker.
2. Thurber’s MY LIFE AND HARD TIMES.
3. Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”
4. Elechi Amadi’s THE GREAT PONDS.
5. They Told Me, Heraclitus (from THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY)

— Ron Singer

(more…)

Top Five: David Mohan

“My top five things related to writing are risk-taking, the unaccountable, a sense of mystery, psychological honesty and a lateral point of view.”

— David Mohan

(more…)

Top Five: Deborah Nedelman

My Top Five List of Anything Related to Writing

1. windows just big enough to offer a glimpse of something moving
2. rainy days
3. another profession or a devoted fan to support a writing habit
4. readers
5. semicolons and their many friends

— Deborah Nedelman

(more…)

Top Five: Peter Friedman

Top Five Medical Conditions That Could Be Names of Literary Magazines

1. Aphasia
2. Vitreous Heme
3. Thrombosis
4. Spider Angioma
5. Red Ear Syndrome

— Peter Friedman

(more…)

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