My Animals: How Susan Orlean’s On Animals Taught Me the Value of Human-Animal Crossings
By reading On Animals, I remembered my animals.
Examining Ourselves: The Painful Truths in Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman
Instead of fighting violence with violence, picking up a weapon, and spilling blood, Cassie’s revenge is more psychological and, debatably, more detrimental.
Uncoupled Love: A Review of “Marriage Quarantine” by Kate Walbert
Kate Walbert redefines marriage by exploring its disjointed sides during a pandemic.
A Box of Ingredients: Interview with Beth Piatote, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of The Beadworkers: Stories
I think about other Native people who may read that piece and can, through the piece, feel a connection to those lands…feel that they are there.
Announcements
Past Announcements
Issue 41 Pre-Order Open
Our 41st issue is now available for pre-order online.
2021 Sudden Fiction Contest Winners!
We’re thrilled to announce the winners and honorary mention of our 2021 Sudden Fiction Contest! Read more to find out who won!
Book Reviews
Abuse, Neglect, and Escape: A Book Review of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Reading a story through memories feels like an old movie, a movie that predates the Second World War.
On Writing Stories and Ourselves: A Review of Old School by Tobias Wolff
If there is one thing that Old School excels in, it is the raw depiction of the protagonist’s contrived self-presentation.
Everyday Strength and Struggle: Review of Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery
When we “keep faith” in the face of catastrophe, we discover new strength within ourselves to keep going.
More Reviews
Coarsely, Shockingly Real: A Review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Unlikeable main characters abound in modern fiction, and this novel does not break that mold.
Feminism and Witchcraft: A Review of Circe by Madeline Miller
What if Circe could tell her own version of the story? Madeline Miller explores this possibility within her novel Circe: a story that transcends just a simple rewriting of The Odyssey.
Emotional Thrills: Review of The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Jewell has crafted a compelling mystery full of twists and turns, making sure you won’t know who to believe.
A Literary Quilt Woven of Golden Thread: Review of How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a novel that looks readers in the eye, never flinching from its own intensity.
“Unapologetically Brown and Unapologetically South Asian”: A Review of The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
In Adiba Jaigirdar’s The Henna Wars, Bengali teenager Nishat decides to come out as a lesbian to her traditional parents against the backdrop of her family friend’s wedding.
Commentaries
Three YA Novels that Got Mental Health Right
This is in no way a comprehensive list—however, I specifically chose works that not only avoid traditional YA standards, but gripped me enough to compel a second read.
Bookstores of the Bay: A Curated List
If you’re looking to find some new shops to explore, or just simply hear about one person’s experiences with bookstores, keep on reading!
Squid Game: What’s the Big Deal? and Other Existential Questions
If I’m no longer assessing the media by its emotional resonance, where does that leave me?
From Pages to Premiers: The Case for Book To Movie Adaptations
If turning books into movies makes these stories more accessible, leading more people to love the tales being told, what’s the harm?
More Readings
Bilingual Literature and the Acceptance of Not Understanding
Bilingual literature that embodies a lack of understanding offers a clear benefit to immigrant writers. They are able to express the feelings of alienation and incomprehension that come with relocating to a new country to people who have never had the experience, while simultaneously writing for their community.
Best Spooky Books to Read This Fall
It’s fall, which means it’s time to curl up by the fire with some spooky music and read a scary book!
Surfing the Time Wave: Prescience in Frank Herbert’s Dune
Ever since H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, the topic of time and our ability to interact with it has been at the forefront of science fiction.
Fiction
His Scaly Self
Gradually, he grew accustomed to his alternate form, to the point that he could forget about it for hours at a time.
More Stories
The Drive to the Crematorium
On the drive to the crematorium, I think I make peace with your death.
Last Snowfall
It is Earth’s final snowfall / and everyone is here.
Pizza Talk
This is probably why I want him to impregnate me, so my kid won’t have to suffer, and, in turn, I won’t have to suffer.
Auteur Theory
Dripping in the color, she was sci-fi sanctified, alien and clean.
Remainder
After our first week, I begin to lose things during the walks along the creek.
Haunted Home
The ship features a recreation of a slave ship’s hold. The cruise prides itself on it. It is not a good recreation, if the metric is realism.
Pillow Practice
Promise me you won’t write a poem about me.
I, Iris
I am Iris, I thought. Iris is me, and Iris is in the wrong lane.
Interviews
Breaking the Canon: Interview with K-Ming Chang, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of Bestiary
Something about flash fiction and short fiction is just so ripe with experimentation and with breaking boundaries and for kind of completely turning on its head what a story can look like.
A Flash of Lightning and Heartbreak: Interview with Ashley Hutson, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of One’s Company
I feel like when you write flash, you’re giving something to the reader, like an electric shock.
A Case for “the surreal and the strange”: Interview with Anna Vangala Jones, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of Turmeric & Sugar
When I picture a flash fiction story done well, a story that’s getting so much across in this tiny space, I imagine a little snow globe or something that’s bursting with how much is going on inside it.
More Interviews
“Short, colorful, Twilight Zone-y Tales”: An interview with Ben Loory, Sudden Fiction guest judge and author of Tales of Falling and Flying
I decided early on that I was going to write my stories…in my own voice, my own words, with my own sense of humor and my own actual grammar and peculiarities of speech… everything exactly the way I would tell it.
Written Representation Through Shared Family Stories: Interview with E.P. Tuazon author of “Professional Lola”
It’s really important to have this kind of representation for our culture, because there’s not a lot of it out there.
An Exchange of Letters: Interview with Grace Lavery, author of Please Miss
I have, frankly, had a sort of self-aggrandizing sense of my own importance since I was a young child. So I’ve been writing this book all my fucking life.
Personal Essays
Escaping Into Reality: The Importance of Fictional Truth
There’s a common misconception that escapist fiction is far removed from reality, but I would argue that it is simply a different kind of truth about another aspect of reality.
Regarding the Pain of Women: Disabled Childhoods and Intellectual Insanity
Growing up as a disabled child, I learned to live in a world that was my own.
Lucia’s Lessons on Leaving
Berlin’s writing captured a sort of reckless joy I recalled from my time in Paris: living on that rugged edge between foolish risk-taking and worthwhile adventure.
More Readings
Blue Pills as Always
Across this textured face, I count all the bleeding and irritated spots, hooking onto them with my eyes and making sure that each and every unwanted citizen of a pimple on the once-clear expanse of my face is ingrained in my mind.
My Unseen World
The Unseen World grapples with this abstract notion: if memories are the fundamental building blocks to a coherent identity, when one loses these memories or memories are distorted —who does this person become? Who are they in relation to you?
How Reading Has Helped Me in the Age of COVID-19
“I….have been able to use reading as both a reprieve from reality, as well as an educational tool to become a more productive version of my isolated self.”
Visuals
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