The Hot Air Balloon
by Christopher James
When he was a young boy, his family took him to ride a hot air balloon. On the way there, the mother described the view from on high. You can see everything, she said, and the houses are so small they look like lego. But when the balloon was only six feet above the ground, the father stopped it. This is far enough for us, he told his son. He kept them there until the boy was old enough to take his own balloons, but by then, unfortunately, the boy had already forgotten that balloons could reach for the sky.
Christopher James lives, works and writes in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has been published online in Booth, SmokeLong, Tin House, and Wigleaf, among others. He is the editor of Jellyfish Review
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “The Hot Air Balloon”? I don’t know if this is fascinating or surprising, but I was reading a lot of Osama Alomar. He’s a wonderful writer who creates these very concise, very beautiful, very thought provoking stories. I wanted to write something in a similar spirit, and had been batting around a hot air balloon idea for a while. When it came, I jumped out of bed at five in the morning and this poured out almost exactly the way it is now. Love it when that happens!
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Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
09/15 • Abbie Doll
09/22 • Karen Regen Tuero
09/29 • Amy Speace
10/06 • Jennifer Edwards
10/13 • Joseph O’Day
10/20 • Carolyn Zaikowski
10/27 • Sunmisola Odusola
11/03 • Sara Cassidy
11/10 • Liz Abrams-Morley
11/17 • Alison Colwell
11/24 • Lucy Zhang
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