Short, Vigorous Roots: A Contemporary Flash Fiction Collection of Migrant Voices

by Mark Budman (Editor), Susan O'Neill (Editor)

Overview

The line between imagination and reality blurs in these forty poignant pieces written by first- and second-generation immigrant authors.

This flash fiction anthology examines the experiences of being a transplant in a foreign land and looks critically at what it means to forsake tongues, traditions, and comforts in the hope of starting a new life in another world. These stories push readers to expand their understanding of the world beyond their own front doors.

The collection contains forty affecting works written by several multigenerational immigrant authors from countries around the world, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Cuba, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldavia, Morocco, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States, and Vietnam. Regardless of their origin, all share the experience of putting down roots in new soil and examining how adapting to new lives and lands impacts the characters’ understanding of themselves and their community. The stories are organized into four parts: "Past the Limits of the Familiar," "The Change is Slow," "Inheriting the Earth," and "Tired of Waiting for Home." At a thousand words or fewer, every vignette redefines resilience and the meaning of home.

• Ellison Alcovendaz
• Nancy Au
• Genia Blum
• Aida Bode
• Raffi Boyadjian
• Philip Charter
• James Corpora
• Walerian Domanski
• Ingrid Jendrzejewski
• Varya Kartishai
• Masha Kisel
• Ruth Knafo Setton
• Nina Kossman
• Rimma Kranet
• Shaun Levin
• Amit Majmudar
• Maija Mäkinen
• Sayantika Mandal
• Erick Messias
• A. Molotkov
• Feliz Moreno
• Kathy Nguyen
• Alexandros Plasatis
• Irina Popescu
• Stuart Stromin
• Edvin Subašić
• Yong Takahashi
• Alizah Teitelbaum
• Lazar Trubman
• Jose Varghese
• Marina Villa
• Yara Zghbeib

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947845305
Publisher:	Ooligan Press
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Mark Budman is first generation immigrant to the US. He is an engineer by training but works as a medical interpreter. His fiction has appeared in Catapult, Witness, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. He is the author of the novel My Life at First Try, published by Counterpoint, and is the co-editor of anthologies published by Ooligan Press, Persea, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (China), and Universityof Chester (UK). Learn more at markbudman.com.

Susan O'Neill is the author of two books: the fiction collection Don't Mean Nothing (Ballantine Books, UMass Press, and Serving House Books), and a slim volume of mostly humorous short essays, Calling New Delhi for Free (Peace Corps Writers Books). She co-edited Vestal Review, the oldest continuously-running journal for flash fiction, from its beginnings in 2000 until 2020, and has published stories and essays in a fair number of literary magazines, virtual and print. She was nominated for the Pushcart twice, in fiction and in nonfiction.

Read an Excerpt

Beating Boris

by Masha Kisel

Ever since Boris Efimovich became her stepfather when she was six years old, Sasha fantasized about growing big enough to overpower him. When he smacked the back of her head or hit her arms, buttocks, or stomach with a belt, she imagined him as a frail old man. His white beard down to his knees, he would cower in the corner of their small kitchen as she raised a frying pan over him, ready to beat him senseless.

Four years later, with the help of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they were allowed to leave the Soviet Union. An invisible hand, large as the fear of the unknown, plucked them out of Kiev and carried them from Vienna to Rome to Chicago. They dangled without citizenship, suspended over foreign lands by the kind giant’s grasp. At every checkpoint they were interviewed. “How were you persecuted for being Jewish? Which slurs did they call you? Were you beaten? How badly did it hurt and where?”

Boris Efimovich stopped eating. His hair began to grey. His arms grew weak. He could barely manage to slap Sasha across the face.

“Oh, his delicate nerves! Will he make it to 1989?” Sasha’s mother cried when they were detained an extra week in Austria.

“Maybe it’s because I told them that I’m a good Communist and all Americans are bourgeois pigs?” Sasha said as a joke. No one found it funny. She tried again. “I said that Boris Efimovich is a KGB agent.” He was almost too broken to take off his belt. Sasha didn’t care. She gorged on Vienna’s roasted chestnuts, foot-long hotdogs, and chocolate-covered pretzels. She gaped in amazement at the roses blooming in the middle of December—red as her stepfather’s handprint on her cheek—as she walked on a cold beach in Rome.

A few months after they arrived in America, Boris Efimovich stopped leaving their fourth-story Chicago apartment. All day long he sat in an armchair they had salvaged from the dumpster, watching the empty yard—so different from their neighborhood in Kiev. There were no gossiping grandmothers warming benches, no children playing outside.

“This is America?” he’d say in a frightened whisper. “Where are all the people?” Sasha bundled up in a coat too small for her rapidly growing body and walked out the door. She was meeting her new friend Amy at the Greek diner where they would eat American French fries and laugh in English. Sasha looked up.

Boris Efimovich was just a small figure in the window.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Mark Budman

Part One: Past the Limits of the Familiar

1. "The Immigrant Leaves, Again" by Shaun Levin
2. "A Nice Boy" by Raffi Boyadjan
3. "Unexpected Sunday Meeting" by Lazar Trubman
4. "On the Counter" by Yara Zghbeib
5. "Fishing for a New Life" by Marina Villa
6. "Raft" by Philip Charter
7. "Tasting Life" by Jose Varghese
8. "Crossing the Line" by James Corpora
9. "Joseph and his Brothers" by Alizah Teitelbaum
10. "My First Day in Monterey" by Nina Kossman

Part Two: The Change is Slow

1. "Throwing Down Roots" by Amit Majmudar
2. "Arrivals" by Irina Popescu
3. "Chasing Gods" by Edvin Subašić
4. "Illegals are the Best Drivers" by Erick Messias
5. "Lido" by James Corpora
6. "I’ll Be Back" by Varya Kartishai
7. "Living Out Loud" by Yong Takahashi
8. "Learning to Float" by Jose Varghese
9. "The Perfect Girl" by Ruth Knafo Setton

Part Three: Inheriting the Earth

1. "Ventricular" by Feliz Moreno
2. "The Ravine" by Genia Blum
3. "Dust Day" by Aida Bode
4. "The Last Stand" by Ellison Alcovendaz
5. "Learning English, Teaching Russian" by Nina Kossman
6. "Photo Not Taken" by Ruth Knafo Setton
7. "Pet Rock" by Mark Budman
8. "Old Men, No English" by Edvin Subašić
9. "Beating Boris" by Masha Kisel
10. "She Is a Battleground" by Nancy Au
11. "Mushrooms" by Irina Popescu

Part Four: Tired of Waiting for Home

1. "Acknowledgements" by Alexandros Plasatis
2. "Two Nights Only" by Philip Charter
3. "Crayfish Cocktail" by Stuart Stromin
4. "The Wake" by Rimma Kranet
5. "Welcome the Red Army" by Walerian Domanski
6. "Disbelief" by A. Molotkov
7. "The Immaculate Heart of Mary" by Ingrid Jendrzejewski
8. "The Ghosts of Other Immigrants" by Maija Mäkinen
9. "Searching for Elsewheres That Lead to Somewheres" by Kathy Nguyen
10. "Hilsa in Hog Plum Sauce" by Sayantika Mandal

What People are Saying About This

author of The Third Daughter and Others - Talia Carner

The inner worlds of the contributors intersect with the physical worlds they inhabit and the casts of characters that leave their mark on the dynamics of each moment. The common denominator...is that they all come from elsewhere. Through the prisms of their old lives and locales, they now view past and present moments, aspirations, and challenges with both frustration and awe as they chart new lives in the US. Together, their fascinating stories weave together a rich tapestry that is today’s America.

— Talia Carner, author of The Third Daughter and others.

author of Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This Is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz

When a collective silence is broken, thunder. Short, Vigorous Roots is beautiful, necessary thunder. A collection that takes and gives breath.

 — Junot Diaz, author of Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This Is How You Lose Her

author of Bad Harvest and Silvertone - Dzvinia Orlowsky

An artfully arranged collection of masterful stories that resonate with the essential truths of our time.

— Dzvinia Orlowsky, author of Bad Harvest and Silvertone

From the Publisher

When a collective silence is broken, thunder. Short, Vigorous Roots is beautiful, necessary thunder. A collection that takes and gives breath.

author of Bully Love - Patricia Murphy

The reader is transported to foreign lands through stunning narration and description...part travel writing, part historical artifact, part emotional appeal for a new world humanity, these stories capture poignant details from immigrants young and old.

— Patricia Murphy, author of Bully Love

Poets & Traitors Press - Val Vinokur

If history rhymes, then this collection is a chorus for its time.

— Val Vinokur, Poets & Traitors Press

Universityof Northern British Columbia - Christine Ho Younghusband

Unique, eclectic, emotional...A highly recommended read that helps one understand the complexities of individuals who make up the cultural mosaic of a country.

— Christine Ho Younghusband, Universityof Northern British Columbia

Christine Ho Younghusband - University of Northern British Columbia

Unique, eclectic, emotional...A highly recommended read that helps one understand the complexities of individuals who make up the cultural mosaic of a country.

International Literary Agent - Nicole Witt

A gem of global literature...These stories open horizons through content and style to the intimate moments and life experiences of generations on the move and allow us insight into the destinies and lives taking place next to us that so often go unknown and unnoticed.

— Nicole Witt, International Literary Agent

Editorial Reviews

Each story vividly portrays the trials, fears, and hopes of an emigrant immigrating into a strange land. A wondrous array of voices and moods from a wondrous variety of countries.

 — Joe Taylor, Director at Livingston Press

From the Publisher