Have you checked out Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s redesigned Eleventh Stack blog yet?
Eleventh Stack is run by a group of library workers who are passionate about books, movies and music — and was originally envisioned as a place to explore all the cool stuff at the Main Library, which is home to about a million items. Recently, they’ve branched out to explore the rest of the Carnegie Library system!
Littsburgh loves the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — and to help spread the word about the excellent work they’re doing — we’ll be highlighting posts from the Eleventh Stack from time to time…
If you’re looking for reading recommendations, we highly recommend you bookmark the Eleventh Stack — and give Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh a follow on Facebook and Twitter!
Flash fiction. It’s really, really, really short fiction. Shorter than this blog post, in many cases.
There’s a famous Mark Twain quote that goes, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Mark Twain agrees. Flash fiction is hard to write. How do you tell a compelling, meaningful, and impactful story in 200, 500 or even 1,000 words?
Local author Sherrie Flick has the answer in her new collection, Whiskey, Etc. At 207 pages, the collection contains 57 short short stories, most of them between one and three pages long. Some are only a paragraph, and some stretch to five or so pages. All of them will make you feel as if you are holding a small, intricately detailed world in the palm of your hand.
Flick has grouped the stories into categories: Songs, Pets, Dessert, Art, Soap, Whiskey, etc. (Get it?) These aren’t dogmatic categories, but more like loose grouping of themes and objects. Within the categories, the stories range from funny to devastating. The tone throughout is muted and quiet, but it feels like something will happen next, even if it isn’t written down.
In my opinion, the ending makes or breaks the story. And Flick nails the ending every time. Instead of closing the story, her endings open that world up to possibility and the future: “As she sets her glass on the coaster and stands, she rubs the faint curl of a red mark the glass has made on her forehead. When the steady pounding begins at her door, she swings it open wide to see what has come (84)”
The characters in these stories handle—or don’t—complex emotions. Love is not a simple yes or no, it’s a yes, but. Often, it’s not love at all, but lust or fear wrapped in satin. Revenge is not an overt or epic action, but a series of small betrayals and denials.
Details hold these miniature worlds together: “the sound of a glass bottle shattering in an alleyway, a muffled yell” (15), “moonlight spills onto the lake like tomato juice” (146), “You drive toward Wyoming with a lump in your throat, with a Tic Tac in your mouth, with a flask in your glove compartment” (160).
These small descriptions create both a physical world within the story and a lens through which to view the characters. Every word is precise and chosen with care. They echo throughout the story, creating ripples and rip tides of meaning and feeling.
Time becomes liquid in many of the stories–reaching out to the past or the future, as in “Sweet Thang,” a story about a breakup: “So lovely that I remember for the last time the first time I saw him, walking across the lawn at Suzy’s infamous BBQ. Walking so fluidly, like he could be, would be, a man in love with me some day” (5).
And in “Anna,” a story about a woman with a double life: “Long nights ooze into one another like stiff, black ink bringing thoughts about her future and how many books she hasn’t read, recipes she hasn’t tried, and friends she no longer calls” (78).
The elasticity of time is one of my favorite aspects of Whiskey, Etc., and flash fiction in general. Because space is so short, there’s no room for a traditional narrative that follows the inverted check mark you learned about in English class. Everything must be condensed, contained, and encapsulated—but not stifled or suffocated.
Doing that is the real trick, and Flick does it with ease.
-Kelly
Dive into Miniature Worlds
Kelly reads, writes and sometimes sews, always with a large mug of tea. Her job as the Clerical Specialist at CLP – West End gives her plenty of ideas for stories that find homes in obscure literary magazines.
This post sponsored by our friends at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Brockport, PA — The WCoNA Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia® (here and after WCoNA) is pleased to announce its longlist Read more
“A relevant, harrowing mystery with page-turning suspense.” ―Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Just the Nicest Couple From Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
“Sidle Creek is one of the best story collections I’ve read in a long time.” –Ron Rash, New York Times Read more
Littsburgh’s co-founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (also a literary agent and author) joined Heather Abraham on Talk Pittsburgh again this week Read more
From the Publisher: "For more than fifty years, we have been waging, but not winning, the war on cancer. We’re Read more
"Myriad has been in so many time streams she’s lost count – hiding from her feelings about her brother’s death Read more
“Beautiful, vivid writing and a power-packed plot . . . I truly loved it.” –Lauren Tarshis, bestselling author of the Read more
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Read more
About the Author: "Ken Gormley is president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. A lawyer, constitutional scholar, and author, Gormley's work Read more
"Living in Pittsburgh, and truth be told at loose ends since the blue jays, how could we expect to hold Read more
From the Publisher: The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans Read more
From the Publisher: The confluence in the title of this debut collection from Samantha DeFlitch describes the meeting of three Read more
"From her bench in the park near her house, the woman who Rebecca so beautifully and poignantly portrays quietly carries Read more
"Slam came to Pittsburgh in the early ’90s, and it still has a home here. But two long-time practitioners also Read more
Selected by Cheryl Strayed for the Kore Press Institute Memoir Award From the Publisher: "Certain and Impossible Events orbits the Read more
"Sewickley, the Shawnee word for sweet water, derived from the tribe’s belief that the borough’s shores were a little sweeter Read more
"After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with an English degree, Sharon Flake could have concentrated on fiction for adults, Read more
From the publisher: "Soon after her husband's tragic death, Robin Besher makes a startling discovery: He had recklessly blown through Read more
