Quick Fiction – Fall 2005

From the moment you pick up Quick Fiction, something tells you it isn’t a standard literary journal. There’s the diminutive size, the quirky cover art, and, most notably, the refreshing and innovative selections of flash fiction. Each piece clocks in at five hundred words or less, the subject matter ranging from a surreal sexual encounter to sea turtles to an overdue library book to an interview with the CIA, featuring styles both lyrical and gritty, with some entries blurring the line between prose and poetry. From the moment you pick up Quick Fiction, something tells you it isn’t a standard literary journal. There’s the diminutive size, the quirky cover art, and, most notably, the refreshing and innovative selections of flash fiction. Each piece clocks in at five hundred words or less, the subject matter ranging from a surreal sexual encounter to sea turtles to an overdue library book to an interview with the CIA, featuring styles both lyrical and gritty, with some entries blurring the line between prose and poetry. The issue opens with a wonderful short-short by Pamela Painter, “Your Letter in an Envelope in the Mail”: “A short letter, but it is oddly all still there. The frenetic, unpredictable hodgepodge of printing and script. The narcissism of the ornate capital letters—except for your lazy disinclination to flow with the capital letter F when a demonstrably intelligent right angle will do.” Other favorites include Joel Best’s “The Nothing Bird” and Susan Woodring’s “Clutch.” I cannot praise this inventive magazine enough; spend a few hours with this issue of Quick Fiction for a dose of creativity and uniqueness of vision that’s all too rarely found in the contemporary literary landscape. [Quick Fiction, 26 Jefferson Street, Cambridge, MA 02141. Single issue $5.50. www.quickfiction.org] —Laura van den Berg