Welcome

The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is a non-profit publisher of compressed creative arts, such as micro fiction, flash fiction, prose poetry, compressed poetry & visual arts, and whatever other forms compression might take. Matter pays authors $50 for their accepted pieces. We publish weekly bursts of compression & decompression and make as many varied word-plays on matter as we can. We also blog here and at FlashFiction.Net.

The Happiness Engine, 2 of 7

by Nicholas Rombes

[Editor's Note: The Happiness Engine consists of seven pieces, ranging in size from approximately 17”x9” to 7”x5”. The materials are acrylic, charcoal, ink, and typewritten text on old paper, consisting of vintage scavenged letterhead, stationery, and endpapers salvaged from damaged and discarded books. The compressed narrative— from 1 through 7—sketches the story of a character named Ephraim in the labyrinth of underground USA tunnels as he searches for his disappeared sister. We will be publishing one piece per week, from Feb 15 - March 28. To view the previous installments, click on the number: 1. Please click on the file below to view it full-size.]

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The Faithful

by Sue Ann Connaughton

Boston, 1959: smack, crack
the whip of education in corridors (more…)

The Happiness Engine, 1 of 7

by Nicholas Rombes

[Editor's Note: The Happiness Engine consists of seven pieces, ranging in size from approximately 17”x9” to 7”x5”. The materials are acrylic, charcoal, ink, and typewritten text on old paper, consisting of vintage scavenged letterhead, stationery, and endpapers salvaged from damaged and discarded books. The compressed narrative— from 1 through 7—sketches the story of a character named Ephraim in the labyrinth of underground USA tunnels as he searches for his disappeared sister. We will be publishing one piece per week, from Feb 15 - March 28. Please click on the file below to view it full-size.]

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Tiny Hand Man

by Greg Shemkovitz

The car lurched forward and, with one eye open, Everett held two fingers before him, a tiny man running along the landscape careening past his window. As the car sped up, his fingers hopped over shrubs, skittered along a stone wall, and leaped over approaching obstacles like some primitive video game. (more…)

DAEDAL DOODLE, Z

by Victor Stabin

[Editor's Note: We will be publishing all 26 letters of Victor Stabin's Daedal Doodle series, one each Wednesday for 26 weeks. Be sure to click on the picture for the FULL VIEW! Victor Stabin's alphabet book is available here.]

For almost three years, wherever he went, Victor Stabin brought a dictionary along. Combing through over 8,000 pages of a variety of dictionaries, he came up with the alliterations that inhabit this work. Inspired by reading “ABC” books to his three-year-old daughter Skyler, his love of words, and his incessant inability to to stop doodling, he unflinchingly created the improbable alliterative combinations and illustrations that inhabit this work. In his heart he knew he was creating a work that, while using unusually obtuse words, would have broad appeal and challenge the “ABC” status quo. The goal—to create platforms that bridge literate curiosity across multiple generations using mostly common (and sometimes extraordinarily uncommon) imagery in new and inventive ways. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, presented for your literate and retinal delight… (more…)