Girl Years

Karen Dietrich explains, “I’ve been obsessed with the experiences of girlhood for as long as I can remember. In writing the pieces that became Girl Years, I set out to document scenes from an American girlhood, but also to explore where memory and imagination intersect. As a child I was fascinated with the idea of the interior life (and of course, that fascination continues). I often felt as though my true self was the one living inside.

I stumbled upon the idea of Girl Years rather by chance. I had been thinking about girls as their own species (hence the play on “dog years,” a formula I never quite understood how to calculate). In my writing, I started meditating on these different concepts of time and the past (clearly another fascination) and it was through this exploration that I wrote the title piece.

Certain questions persisted, and those questions compelled me to write more. Is there such a thing as common experience? Can we ever truly know what we feel minutes, hours, even years, in the same way? I find more comfort in questions rather than answers, as I am forever drawn to the unknown, the unknowable.

Girl Years, a collection of creative nonfiction flash.

$5.00 + $3.00 shipping.

Or send a check for $8.00 ($5.00 + $3.00 shipping) to:
Matter Press
PO Box 704
Wynnewood, PA 19096

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Upcoming:

12/15 • Isabelle Ness
12/22 • Catherine Bai
12/29 • Stephan Viau
01/05 • Allison Blevins
01/12 • Justin Ocelot
01/19 • Yejun Chun
01/26 • Mathieu Parsy
02/02 • Robert McBrearty
02/09 • Sarah Daly
02/16 • Wayne Lee
02/23 • Terena Elizabeth Bell
03/02 • Michael Mirolla
03/09 • Nicholas Claro
03/16 • TBD
03/23 • TBD
03/30 • TBD