More recognition of TQO authors, this time for short-shorts

Wifleaf, an online lit mag featuring “[very] short fiction,” defined as less than 1000 words, has released its selection of the fifty best examples of 2011. The list includes Karen Brennan’s “Collected Stories,” published here in TriQuarterly Online Issue 138: Spring/Fall 2010. Another TQO contributor, James Todd Adcox, was recognized for his story which appeared in kill author. Congratulations to both.

A perusal of Wigleaf’s top fifty list is also a tour of online magazines that are soliciting and publishing good very short fiction. Some are well-known standards and others may be new and intriguing to you, so I hope you will take a look.

Here’s another short-short from Fictionaut. I like the way Sam Rasnake’s piece is flanked by an author’s note of reflection.

In today’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, an undergraduate and graduate level writing workshop instructor talks about the pros and cons of participation for undergrads who will never become writers. Elise Blackwell writes about some of the more obvious benefits, such as exercising the imagination and developing a sense of accountability to one’s peers to show up prepared. She has more to say about the development of criticial thinking and shaking off of clichés in exploring character:

When I hear a student who is asked whether his narrator is “bad” or “good” answer “both,” I recognize an increased tolerance for answers that aren’t easy and a real effort to understand the human condition.

Nicely said.