Table of Contents
Introduction: On Voice, Concision, and 20 Years of Flash Nonfiction Dinty W. Moore ix
Introduction: Flash, Present, and Future: A Brevity Retrospective Zoë Bossiere xiii
The Shape of Emptiness Brenda Miller 1
Thumb-Sucking Girl Sonja Livingston 3
The Cruelty We Delivered: An Apology Ira Sukrungruang 4
I Hoisted them, two drug dealers, I guess that's what they were Diane Seuss 6
Wings Daisy Hernández 8
Imagining Foxes Brian Doyle 11
Women These Days Amy Butcher 13
Forgetting Abigail Thomas 16
Poster Children Sandra Gail Lambert 17
Letter to a Future Lover Ander Monson 20
The Birthday Place Rebecca McClanahan 22
A Most Dangerous Game Alexis Wiggins 25
Mother's Tongue Samuel Autman 27
Wide Open Spaces Kathryn Miller 29
Blood; Quantum Danielle Geller 31
Girl Fight Joey Franklin 33
White Lies Erin Murphy 35
I Remain Very Sorry for What I Did to the Little Black Kitten Jenny Boully 37
Shower Songs Brian Trapp 39
My Cousin's Backyard Deborah Taffa 42
Holy Lori Jakiela 44
Fluency Jamila Osman 47
Cheekbones Patricia Park 48
If You Find a Mouse on a Glue Trap Suzanne Farrell Smith 51
Lag Time Steven Church 53
The Sloth Jill Chnstman 55
Place Robert Root 56
Transgender Day of Remembrance: A Found Essay Torrey Peters 59
Intro to Creative Writing Dani Johannesen 64
A Brief Atmospheric Future Matthew Gavin Frank 67
Counting Bats Thao Thai 70
Openings Jennifer Sinor 73
How to Leave a Room Marcia Aldrich 75
Sunrise Joe Oestreich 77
Post-Mortem Traci Brimhall 80
An Indian in Yoga Class: Finding Imbalance Rajpreet Heir 83
Genesis Bret Lott 86
The Blind Prophets of Easter Island Tessa Fontaine 89
I Go Back to Berryman's Vincent Scarpa 91
\'in-glish\ Christina Tang-Bernas 93
Before Sunrise Erika Dreifus 96
Dropping Babies J.D. Schraffenberger 99
Solving for X Pam Durban 102
So Little Josey Foo 105
Suspended Kyle Minor 106
Fish Nicole Walker 108
When a 17-Year-Old Checkout Clerk in Small Town Michigan Hits on Me, I Think about the Girl I Loved at 17 Krys Malcolm Belc 111
Bear Fragments Christine Byl 113
Recesses Mark Strieker 116
Katy Perry Is Crooning and Won't Stop Just Because I Did Shuly Xóchitl Cawood 118
Five from Kyrgyzstan Jia Tolentino 120
How to Discuss Race as a White Person Sam Stokley 123
Hairy Credentials Nicole Cyrus 125
Alive Laurie Lynn Drummond 128
Perdition Kristen Radtke 131
Success and Prosperity Bouiyan Chen Jennie Chia-Hui Chu 132
Quinto Sol Michelle Otero 134
Devotion Sarah J. Lin 136
Girl/Thing Anna Vodicka 139
Ace of Spades Julie Marie Wade 140
Some Space Michael Martone 143
An Address to My Fellow Faculty Who Have Asked Me to Speak About My Work Ayse Papatya Bucak 146
Confession Michelle Valois 149
Beach City Jaquira Díaz 151
On Being a Trucker Lia Purpura 154
How to Erase an Arab Julie Hakim Azzam 156
Milk for Free Deesha Philyaw 159
Surrender Nina Boutsikaris 162
The Salmon Charlotte Gullick 164
The Things I've Lost Brian Arundel 167
The Farmers' Almanac Best Days for Breeding John A. McDermott 170
All or Nothing, Self-Portrait at 27 Jill Talbot 172
Talk Big Lee Martin 174
Open Season Harrison Candelaria Fletcher 177
Chronology of the Body Sam Kiss 181
On the Occurrence of March 20, 1981 and on the Occurrences of Every Night After B.J. Hollars 184
Meanness Beverly Donofrio 186
When We Played Matthew Komatsu 188
The Heart as a Torn Muscle Randon Billings Noble 191
Breathless Heather Sellers 194
The Domestic Apologies Dustin Parsons 197
The Lunch Lady and Her Three-Headed Dogs Sonya Huber 200
Some Things About That Day Debra Marquart 202
There Are Distances Between Us Roxane Gay 204
Further Resources for Writers, Readers, and Teachers of Flash Nonaction
On Brevity and Teaching the Flash Essay 209
A Guide to Pairing The Best of Brevity with The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction 213
Alternate Table of Contents by Subject and Form 219
Contributors 230
Credits 250
Acknowledgments 253
About the Editors 255
A Note about the Type 256