Sudden Prose: Prose Poetry and Short-Short Stories

Sci-fi flash fiction--with monsters!

2012-02-13T01:44:00.001-08:00

Some sci-fi/fantasy authors have written flash fictions in response to parts of a delightful painting--just click on different creatures in the picture to read them. Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Michael Moorcock, Scott Westerfeld, and many others. The project supports a unique SF/fantasy teen writing camp, Shared Worlds, at Wofford College in South Carolina. I wish I could go!

The Nassau Review's Prose Poetry and Flash Fiction Contest

2012-01-31T03:50:00.000-08:00

Here are the complete details, as picked up from a listserv. Unusually, the competition has no entry fee....

The Nassau Review's 2012 Writer Awards

Submission Dates: Feb. 1 to Feb. 20, 2012

* $250 prize for flash fiction
* $250 prize for prose poetry
* Plus publication in the next issue of The Nassau Review
* Writers may submit ONE flash fiction piece of 100-500 words OR THREE prose poems no longer than one page each
* If you have already submitted during the open submission period, you may submit to the contest, but please do not submit the same piece.
* No entrance fee
* All pieces will also be considered for publication. While not all pieces will win, some may still be published.
* Electronic submissions only through our Submishmash system at the bottom of this page. Use the CONTEST category. Hard copy submissions will be recycled without review.
Visit http://www.ncc.edu/nassaureview for more information about the journal.

Include a cover letter in the Cover Letter/Bio box that includes:
* How you heard about The Nassau Review
* Title(s) of work(s) you are submitting. Include word count if prose.
* Bio of 100 words max.
* Links to your blogs or websites

Creative Prose:
* Send one flash fiction piece from 100 to 3000 words, double space Doc or docx—file name Last NameTitleofStory

Poetry:
* Send three prose poems of no more than one page each, single space Doc or docx—file name LastNamePoems; please use one file for all three poems with page breaks between each.
Members of the Nassau Community College community are not eligible to win these awards. Members of the NCC community include past and current staff, faculty, and administrators as well as current students. Alumni students are eligible. If you have questions about eligibility, emailnassaureview@ncc.edu with the email subject line: Contest Eligibility Query

Publication Rights: By submitting your work, you agree to have your work published in one issue of The Nassau Review as well as possibly on our website. You grant us first North American serial rights and the right to archive your work online for an indefinite period of time. You retain all other rights, which means you can republish the work in other journals (after one year from the date of publication in our journal), and you can republish it in or as your own book. Any subsequent publication of accepted work should note that you were first published in The Nassau Review. You are also welcome to create a link to us from your personal website.

If you have any other questions regarding submissions or the journal in general, please email: nassaureview@ncc.edu with the email subject line: Question About The Nassau Review

We reply within three months after the deadline. If you do not hear from us after three months after the deadline, you may and should query after your submission. Email Subject line: Query About CONTEST Submission. Failure to follow the guidelines will result in your submission not being read and you will not receive a response.

An Online Anthology of Flash Fiction?

2012-01-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

What are your favourite short-short stories online? I'd like to refer friends and students to them--and read them myself! Of course, there's Dave Eggers' series at The Guardian. What other treats are out there?

Flash fiction prompts

2011-11-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

To encourage my Sudden Prose students to write more flash fictions, so they have more to choose from when it comes time to select a portfolio, I've been trying to come up with more prompts with which to help them along. Here's the one we tried in class today: Choose two fairy tale characters and put them in conflict to create your own fairy tale flash fiction. Possible characters include a wicked stepmother, a saintly stepdaughter, a princess, a prince, a troll, a dragon, a talking animal, a trusty steed, a fairy, and an old lady.

I'd be glad to hear of other flash fiction prompts that you've found successful, as well as see any responses you come up with to this one!

A new online class in prose poetry and flash fiction

2011-11-08T05:39:00.000-08:00

From 10 January I'll be teaching a new online course on prose poetry and flash fiction for The Poetry School; it meets biweekly (online) on Tuesdays from 7-9 p.m. UK time for five sessions, and participants need to sign up at least two weeks in advance. Come along! Click on "a new online course" for more details.

"Lent" by Julia Webb

2011-10-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

To read an ambitious, compelling prose poem, please see Julia Webb's "Lent," which I chose as the winner of this year's Poetry Society Stanza Prize.

Thoughts on Flash

2011-10-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting remarks on short prose forms from a number of practitioners. Thanks to Andrew Bailey for bringing this post to my attention.

A new online course

2011-10-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Flash fiction and prose poetry fans wherever you may be, I'm happy to tell you I'm teaching an online course on "sudden prose" for The Poetry School, beginning 10 January 2012 and running for 5 fortnightly evening sessions. You can find further details here, but if you're interested, register soon--the class has a limit of 12 students.

The Bath Spa University Flash Fiction Prize

2011-07-17T15:20:00.001-07:00

Bath Spa University has just instated a number of prizes for undergraduate students across the various schools, and I'm heading up several in creative writing. The one relevant for this blog is the Bath Spa University Flash Fiction Prize, for the best flash fiction portfolio from an undergraduate, and the winner for 2011 is Adrian Berg. Congratulations, Adrian!

I hope next year to add a Prose Poetry Prize--stay tuned!

The Binnacle's Ultra-Short Competition

2011-05-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

The Binnacle, the literary journal of the University of Maine-Machias, runs an annual competition for poetry and prose under 150 words. The competition deadline's past, but it would be good to mark the calendar for next year, especially as submissions are free. Last year entries were accepted from 1 December.

A prose poetry exercise

2011-04-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

For a good prose poetry exercise, please see my blog entry for today.

UK magazines regularly publishing prose poetry &c.

2011-04-15T04:00:00.001-07:00

I'm developing a list for my Sudden Prose students I thought would be of greater interest, especially to readers of this blog. Here's what I have thus far (and I welcome your additions) for UK magazines that often publish prose poetry:

Obsessed with Pipework

Poetry Wales

Shadowtrain

Shearsman

Stride

Tears in the Fence

10th Muse

Magazines that have been known to publish prose poetry from time to time:

The Interpreter's House

Iota

The London Magazine

Magma

New Walk

Magazines that rarely if ever publish prose poems:

The London Review of Books

Poetry Review

The Times Literary Supplement

The McDonald's Experience prose poem exercise

2011-04-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

As I haven't posted in a long while, and today's the first day of National Poetry Month, with some, myself including, trying to write a poem a day, I thought I'd share a prose poem exercise I just gave to my undergrads in Sudden Prose. I'd be delighted to see your results.

Choose one of the following and talk about how the place would be transformed if it were set up like a McDonald's: mechanized, automated, branded, etc. Don't mention McDonald's anywhere in the piece.

McLibrary
McHospital
McHotel
McPolice
McUniversity
McCattery
McKennel
McPost Office
McPrimary School

Write as much as you can--try for at least eight sentences, then edit back to your most vivid, original details, for a total of 4-5 sentences.

For the last sentence, describe what the people/animals leaving such a place look like now that they've been through the Mc experience.

I apologise if this requires field research.

Thumbnail Magazine for short works

2011-01-04T11:30:00.001-08:00

A new online magazine, Thumbnail, seeks short works: prose up to 800 words, poetry up to 40 lines. Read the first story of the current issue, Dorene O' Brien's "Alien Invasion Tapes, #87," and see if you don't laugh out loud like I did.

"Hidden from View: The Prose Poem in English Poetry"

2010-11-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

is a useful historical overview of the situation, written by David Caddy and up on his blog. It originally appeared in Stress Fractures: Essays on Poetry, edited by Tom Chivers and published by Penned in the Margins; see the book's page on the press website for details of further essays on contemporary poetry.

David Gaffney's The Half-Life of Songs

2010-11-15T03:41:00.000-08:00

Salt Publishing has brought out what looks to be an interesting collection of flash fictions by David Gaffney. To read more about the book and a delightful selection from it, please see this entry at Tony Williams' blog.

Flash fiction prompts

2010-11-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

Writers of flash fiction may like to see these ideas for stories on flashfiction.net.

"Imagined Sons 18: Greek Salad" nominated for Micro Award 2011

2010-11-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to say that The Iowa Review has decided to nominate my piece, "Imagined Sons 18: Greek Salad," for the 2011 Micro Award, for the best flash fiction under 1,000 words published in the preceding year. The results are announced February 17, 2011. Wish me luck!

Spilling Ink's Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry Competition--deadline Halloween!

2010-10-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

Entries may be up to 1000 words; read more details here.

Leaf Books' Nanofiction Competition results

2010-08-18T04:27:00.001-07:00

The winner is Claire Trévien for "My Daddy." Happily my story "Origins" was commended and so will be included in the anthology as well.

Arvon's Six-Word Story Competition

2010-07-22T12:56:00.001-07:00

Alluding to the legacy of Hemingway's great six-worder (For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.), the Arvon Foundation is holding a competition for six-word short-short stories. Stories can be sent now (some are being posted on the website) and will be received until 1 September, at which point judge Karen McCarthy will select the winners. The prize is a splendid week on an Arvon course, so go ahead, email your six-word stories to competition@arvonfoundation.org.

Under the Radar seeks submissions for short story issue

2010-07-13T05:01:00.001-07:00

Print journal Under the Radar is seeking short stories up to 3,000 words--but with no minimum word count--for a special short story issue; the editors specifically say flash fiction is welcome. The deadline for submissions for this issue is end August, and submissions are welcome via post or email. See the website for further details.

A short-short story application for the iPhone

2010-07-02T13:12:00.001-07:00

More moneyed short-short story enthusiasts might be interested in an iPhone application providing 333-word flashes direct to their screens--and the opportunity to submit their own such stories. Thanks to former Sudden Prose student Simon Reynolds for the notice.

Tania Hersman's Flash Fiction on BBC Radio 4 This Week!

2010-06-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

This week, all of the BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Reading programs - which usually feature a single short story per day - will feature Tania Hershman's flash fiction. There will be a total of 16 stories over the three days, Tuesday June 29th, Wednesday June 30th and Thursday July 1st, read by Nicola Walker ("Ruth" from Spooks) and Tom Goodman-Hill. Some of the short-short stories are from The White Road and Other Stories, but the majority are new work.

The program is broadcast live at 3:30 p.m. UK time and then will be available online for seven days afterwards, so you can listen wherever you are.

NB this is the first time there has been flash fiction in this slot!

A review of three new prose poetry collections

2010-06-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

See Ian Seed's new essay in Stride Magazine for a review of three new collections that suggest the range of possibilities in prose poetry: Tsvetanka Elenkova's The Seventh Gesture, Roberto Tejada's Exposition Park, and Richard Gwyn's Sad Giraffe Cafe.

A new kind of flash fiction competition at The Guardian

2010-06-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Like listening in on others' conversations? There's a competition for different kinds of writing, including flash fiction up to 150 words, based on them, conducted by The Guardian.

Jennifer Moxley's The Line (Post-Apollo Press, 2007)

2010-06-06T03:59:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Moxley's The Line is one of the best books of prose poems I've ever read. Please go to my personal blog's post to read selections and find ordering information.

Flash fiction competition at Leaf Books

2010-05-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Leaf Books is accepting submissions for flash fictions of 300 words or fewer for an anthology. The deadline's 30 September; go here for further details.

"The Rise of the Prose Poem"

2010-05-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Fans of prose poetry will likely enjoy George Ttoouli's lighthearted essay, "The Rise of the Prose Poem," in Horizon 3.

An interview with Brian Clements

2010-04-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Brian Clements, editor of Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, now appears in an online interview at The Argotist, with much to say in regard to prose poetry.

An exploration of the nature of prose poetry

2010-03-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

The online magazine The Offending Adam is currently exploring the nature of prose poetry. Take a look.

Holly Howitt's Dinner Time, second selection

2010-03-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my second selection from Holly Howitt's Dinner Time. I should mention that some pieces are much darker and more surreal than the ones I've selected--the book has an impressive range, but that those pieces tend to be a little longer, and I wanted to stick with what one could see in one small laptop screen.

"Fears"

It's always been the same, I try to explain. Periods and spiders, they're the thoughts I'm bored of. If it's not a furry-legged tarantula, a bird-eating monster, I'm thinking of the heat that makes my insides moan, the dance of my stomach and the heaviness in my knees, then the weightlessness afterwards, like a money spider dancing over my wrists. These are the thoughts that keep me awake, I say. The ones I can't exorcise, the ones that line my dreams and scuttle through my words, wombs and black widows, webs and ballpoint-marked windows.

Is it just me, I ask. Why am I so afraid?

Because you are ridiculous, the woman says, and scurries away on eight legs. My body cramps, expectantly.

Holly Howitt

Dinner Time (Cinnamon Press, 2008)

You can buy the book here.

A draft, another story from "Manslaughter"

2010-03-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

Taken down after a couple days as usual.

Holly Howitt's Dinner Time, first selection

2010-03-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Holly Howitt's work at the Academi annual literature conference, this year at Gellifawr near Pontfaen, Wales. I gave a reading on the Saturday, and on the Sunday Holly was on a panel on flash fiction. I bought her collection of microfictions, Dinner Time, and have enjoyed it--it is by turns surreal, lyrical, wry, and disturbing, in unexpected combinations. Holly has given me permission to reprint here two of her pieces, and this is the first selection.

"Strategies"

Nick sees me before I see him. I can only now be pleased to see him, and smile, but I know that the few seconds he has on me, catching my sad face, will mean that he has won. He takes my hand, says nothing, and walks me home from the tired and dirty station where even the pigeons forget to coo.

The next morning, I ask Nick what he would do if one day, I woke up, saw him on the pillow next to mine, and asked who he was. He says he wouldn't care, but as I take his hand I can feel his palm sweating. I smile, my larynx flutters.

Later, I try to work on my novel, but I cannot write anything with him looking over my shoulder. I feel that, somehow, he'll affect my words.

I can never win for long.

Holly Howitt

Dinner Time (Cinnamon Press, 2008)

You can buy the book here.

"Nanofiction" competition at Leaf Books

2010-03-16T09:38:00.001-07:00

Leaf Books is defining nanofiction as stories of 100 words or fewer, and they are running a competition for such works with successful entries' publication in an anthology, as well as £150 and a copy of the anthology for the winner. You can read further details here, but do it soon--the deadline's the end of April.

Another prose poem from Infinite Difference

2010-03-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

can be read on my blog here. It's a beauty.

First draft of a new flash, "Origins"

2010-03-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Taken down two days later per usual

Lovers of prose poetry and haibun

2010-03-06T08:43:00.001-08:00

will want to check out the latest selection from the just-published anthology I edited, Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets, on my personal blog.

An interview about flash fiction with Tania Hershman

2010-03-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

See this blog for an interview with Tania Hershman about flash fiction.

A draft

2010-02-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

I've been working for a while on a series of interconnected stories, tentatively titled Manslaughter; here are two new flash fictions from that series. It's set in my hometown of Normal, Illinois.

Taken down after a few days by my usual policy of only leaving new, unpublished work up for that amount of time.

"Good Dog" by Anne Carson

2010-02-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

This eight-part prose poem in the 25 February 2010 issue of the London Review of Books is a must-read for any lover of prose poetry. It is exquisitely astonishing.

New Flash Fiction Journal Links

2010-02-11T12:22:00.001-08:00

See the right column for three more online journals that publish flash fiction: Elimae, Six Little Things, and Wigleaf. I'd be glad to hear your opinions of them.

Bridport Prize adds flash fiction category for 2010

2010-02-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

The prestigious Bridport Prize has added a third category for 2010, flash fiction up to 250 words. You can find out more here.

Congratulations

2010-02-07T14:04:00.001-08:00

to former Sudden Prose student Thomas Clayton, whose flash fiction "Reeling" is in Leaf Books' new anthology, From the Left and More Micro Fiction. Buy a copy and check it out!

Mslexia looking for flash fiction

2009-12-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

Women writers, take note: Mslexia is looking for flash fictions of a maximum 150 words on the theme of "harness." The deadline is 12 February 2010. Further details are available here.

An online journal reviewing short story collections

2009-12-13T13:10:00.001-08:00

The Short Review is a monthly online journal that publishes reviews of short story collections and anthologies as well as interviews with short story authors. They also have regular competitions and book giveaways. It's edited by Tania Hershman, author of The White Road and Other Stories (Salt, 2008), a collection of short and short short stories which was longlisted for the Orange Prize.

Ambit 200 Words Competition

2009-12-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

"Ambit magazine 200 words poetry and prose competition

To celebrate our 200th issue Ambit invites you to enter our 200 WORDS COMPETITION! Judged by Ambit writers Naomi Foyle and David Gaffney.

Send us poems or prose of 200 words* for a chance to win!

1st prize: £500
2nd prize: £200
3rd prize: £75

What sort of writing does Ambit like? Buy a copy to find out. Better yet, subscribe!

Entries cost £4 for the first one, and £3 for subsequent entries.

(*no shorter than 196, no longer that 204. This includes the title!)

Closing date is 15 February 2010."

You can find the entry form on Ambit's website.

Rose Metal Press Competition for Pamphlet/Chapbook of Short-Short Stories

2009-11-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Details are here; the competition deadline is 1 December 2009.

Flash Magazine at the University of Chester

2009-11-16T11:01:00.001-08:00

A wonderful new venue for flash fiction up to 360 words--check it out!

Forthcoming books for Sudden Prose at Bath Spa

2009-10-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

These are to improve our holdings in prose poetry and have just been ordered. I'd be glad for suggestions for short-short story collections beyond what we already have.

Jamey Dunham, The Bible of Lost Pets. Salt, 2009.

Gary Young, Pleasure: Poems. Heyday Books, 2006.

Ian Seed. Anonymous Intruder. Shearsman, 2009.

Peter Riley, Greek Passages. Shearsman, 2009.

Lesle Lewis, Small Boat. Iowa University Press, 2003.

Charles Simic, The World Doesn't End. Mariner, 1989.

Charles Simic, Selected Poems 1983-2001. Faber, 2004.

Flash fiction with teenaged main characters wanted NOW

2009-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

"Persea Books is looking for flash fiction, stories of no more than 1000 words, with teenaged main characters, for a Persea anthology that will be used in schools and colleges, as well as sold in bookstores. We're reading now…and the deadline is now! So send asap to info@perseabooks.com"

Another kind of sudden prose, the short nonfiction essay

2009-09-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

There are journals for prose poems and journals for short-short stories, and now there's one for short-short essays. Brevity is dedicated to nonfiction pieces of 750 words or fewer and features both established and emerging authors, and for those looking to hone their work, there's a section on craft with essays with much more precise advice than most of what can be found online.

Leaf Books Microfiction Competition 2009

2009-09-02T22:15:00.001-07:00

Here are the details:

Enter online and pay via PayPal, or by post. If entering online, after making your payment you can send us your entry as an attachment (.doc or .rtf only, please – we can’t open .docx or .wps files) to contact@leafbooks.co.uk.

Entry fee: £3 per entry; four entries for £10

1st prize: £100, copy of the anthology and collection of Leaf pocket-books.

Runner-up: copy of the anthology and collection of Leaf pocket-books.

The winning piece, runner-up and selected commended entries will be published in an anthology.

Closing date – September 30th 2009

Results announced October 2009.

www.leaf-books.co.uk

New Sudden Prose titles for Autumn '09

2009-08-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

These titles have been ordered and should be available at Bath Spa University's Newton Park library from the start of term.

Clary, Killarney. Potential Stranger. U of Chicago Press, 2003.

Edson, Russell. See Jack. U of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.

---. The Tormented Mirror. U of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

Eggers, Dave. How We Are Hungry. Penguin, 2006.

Kennard, Luke. The Solex Brothers (Redux). Salt, 2007.
---. The Harbour Beyond the Movie. Salt, 2007.
---. The Migraine Hotel. Salt, 2009.

Rhodes, Dan. Don’t Tell Me the Truth About Love. Canongate, 2005.

Young, Gary. No Other Life. Heyday Books, 2005.
---. Pleasure: Poems. Heyday Books, 2006.
---. Braver Deeds. Gibbs M. Smith, 1999.

There will also be another magazine among the periodicals for Sudden Prose writers (in addition to Quick Fiction and Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics):

Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine. (http://www.chester.ac.uk/flash.magazine/)

Is Flash Fiction Little Different from Long Fiction?

2009-07-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

Read Sam Ruddick's take and post your responses here.

Flash Fiction open reading in Frome, 19 June

2009-05-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

On Friday, 19 June at 7:45 p.m. at the Merlin Theatre on Bath Road in Frome, 15 names will be drawn from a hat. Each reader will read a single short-short story up to 400 words in 4 minutes, and the best reading/story, as judged by a novelist, a journalist, and a publisher, will win £40. Tickets are £4.

Fast Forward Press Wants Your Flash Fiction

2009-03-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Stories of 1,000 words and fewer are wanted for an anthology to be published next year; the deadline for submission is 31 December 2009, and full details are available here. Former SP student Leslie Smith's story 'The Mug' (see below) will appear in this year's anthology--congratulations, Leslie!

New Anthology of Microfiction/Narrative Prose Poetry Seeks Submissions

2009-03-03T03:13:00.000-08:00

The anthology is being produced by Cinnamon Press, and details are available on the submissions page of their website. The deadline is 15 August.

Flash fiction submissions wanted

2008-10-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

FF>> Press is currently seeking flash fiction submissions for our second volume, due out in the summer of 2009. Our first collection included pieces from Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Lihn Dinh, Barbara Henning, Andrew Wille, and many emerging new voices. We are looking for unpublished flash fiction that runs less than 1,000 words, with a special place in our hearts for the 400-700
word range. Stories should discover something brief and intimate in a very short space. Is it entertaining/thoughtful/edgy/ poignant? Does it deliver in under 1000 words? Then we want it.

Submission Guidelines:
Send up to three of your error-free, previously unpublished flash pieces, under 1000 words, double-spaced in 12-pt Times New Roman or Courier, as a Word or RTF.doc, to
editorff@gmail.com. Please include your name,address, telephone number, email address and word count on the first page of your submission. Submissions will be accepted until December 31, 2008 at midnight. We will contact everyone who has submitted by February 15th, 2009. If we publish your story, you will receive two complimentary copies of the book. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted
elsewhere. We usually assume First North American Rights to work published in our annual, after which all rights revert to the author.

Our first volume, *fast forward*,* *can be found at bookstores around the country including Tattered Cover, Powell Books, and City Lights, and is also available for purchase from amazon.com. Learn more at our website www.fastforwardpress.org.

Another fifty-word short-short from Cerianne Teague

2008-09-22T04:26:00.000-07:00

There it went again. Would her baby ever stop crying?

After three weeks she admitted her mother was right, she was too young to have this responsibility. She had to stop this crying, now!

With tears in her eyes, she undressed him, turned him over and removed the batteries.

Another fifty-word short-short from Cerianne Teague

2008-09-15T00:56:00.001-07:00

This job definitely had its perks! Tonight he'd made love to the most gorgeous woman that he'd ever seen.

He didn't class it as cheating and it seemed such a shame to waste the opportunity.

After a long night, Tony finally wheeled his last trolley down to the hospital morgue.

A fifty-word short-short by Cerianne Teague

2008-09-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

He loved animals. This morning Freeman had purchased the softest and fattest kitten he could find from the RSPCA sanctuary. Well, he wanted his money's worth.

As the timer in the kitchen buzzed and steam hissed from the stew pot, he knew that this kitten was going to be purrrfect!

Cerianne Teague recently completed her BA in English and Creative Writing at Bath Spa and will begin the MA in Creative Writing there this autumn. She took Sudden Prose in Spring 2007.

"The Mug" by Leslie Smith

2008-08-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lovers in older days would take a lock of hair. You, however, seem to have treasured a mug I borrowed one afternoon. I had thought it only laziness that moved the mug to your windowsill, only coincidence that it was next to other precious objects of yours. Why is it still beside that snapshot of your old friends, that ancient dictionary your late father gave you, that empty champagne bottle from your 18th? I doubt the mug is as worthy as those. And yet a week, two weeks later, there it sits.

My mouth left a gossamer-thin ring of claret on the lip of the mug, inside to outside. That's still there. Do you look at it and wonder when I’ll be round next? Do you look at it and wish my lips had met yours instead of the mug, inside to outside?

I’ll tell you a secret: yesterday when you were out of the room, I reapplied my claret lipgloss and kissed the lip of the mug again, refreshing the colour. Why not do it? Why not make your day? Your week? Why not make you smile?

And after that, maybe, just maybe, why not say I love you?

Leslie Smith is an undergraduate at Bath Spa and took Sudden Prose in Spring 2008.

Welcome!

2008-05-31T15:46:00.001-07:00

This blog is an outgrowth of a course I designed and teach for Bath Spa University, Sudden Prose. I'd like to encourage discussion on the forms as well as information-sharing about relevant articles, books, magazines, etc.