Crash
by Andrew Stancek
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Andrew Stancek has been flying in his dreams since early childhood. In a Slovak book called Perutenka, the heroine floats, carefree, above the meadows. In Andrew’s novella Wingy, the protagonist soars until his inevitable Crash. Prescience does not lead to hope.
What more can you tell us about “Crash”? I continue to grapple with the issues of inevitability and free will. “Crash” began as a 3,000 word draft about marital unhappiness and its hoped-for, yet unforeseen, consequences. In compressing, I came to discover the arc from the darkness of knowledge to the light of wisdom. Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit says, “She would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” Compressing and decompressing can lead to insights about centering and transcendence.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
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
10/12 • Kathy Fish
10/19 • Katherine Garrison
10/26 • Beverly Jackson
11/02 • Robert Scotellaro
11/09 • T.L. Sherwood
11/16 • Susan Buchler
11/23 • Chelsea Stickle
11/30 • TBD
12/07 • TBD
12/14 • TBD
12/21 • TBD
12/28 • TBD