CNF: There Was a Coupon in the Newspaper
by Erin Pringle-Toungate
So after the dinosaurs and oil paintings, we boarded the shiny train that ran to nowhere but outside. I ran past the empty seats and Mom called SLOW DOWN and Grandma hurried after. Then she tripped, small woman, and broke against the concrete, her forehead blooming coffee-stained napkins from Mom’s pockets.
Erin’s first story collection, The Floating Order, is published by Two Ravens Press (2009). “How The Sun Burns Among Hills of Rock & Pebble,” the title story of her next collection, just came out as a chapbook with The Head & The Hand Press (2015). She’s now the fiction editor over at Literati Quarterly. Please visit www.erinpringle.com.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “There Was a Coupon in the Newspaper”? I had my creative writing students write three-sentence pieces in order to teach them what few words can do. I did the exercise, too, of course. Then, I proceeded to write more and more, and now I’m deep into a larger work composed of three-sentence memoirs.
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