Difficult Women – Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay was my gateway drug to flash fiction, so she’ll always mean a lot to me. These stories are so wonderful in their variety of long to short, real to surreal, and just all around beautiful.
Pastoralia – George Saunders
This was the first George Saunders book I read and a friend of mine gave it to me for my birthday, saying “You’ve gotta read this.” I’ve read everything he’s written since and love his combination of the beautiful and the bizarre.
Deaf Republic – Ilya Kaminsky
While most of the writers here are flash/story writers, I just had to include this book, which is my favorite book of this year. It’s a cross between poetry, fable, and play and it’s all an around amazing portrayal of life in a small town during wartime.
The Unfinished World – Amber Sparks
I first read Amber Sparks’ story “The Janitor in Space” story and instantly became hooked on her writing. I love her mix of the speculative with the literary and with a shot of heart thrown in for good measure.
Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day – Ben Loory
The first time I encountered Ben Loory, it was hearing him read his story “The Duck” on This American Life. I love his modern day fairy tales and fables, how they’re told so simply written, but are also so sad and weird and beautiful.
Eric Andrew Newman lives in Los Angeles with his partner and their dog. He works as an archivist during the day and as a writer of stories at night. His stories have been nominated for the Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction anthologies, and have appeared or are forthcoming in Atlas and Alice, Bending Genres, Five:2:One, Gargoyle, Pithead Chapel, Quarter After Eight, and Wigleaf. He’s also the Fiction Editor of Okay Donkey and is at work on his first collection of stories. newman.ea@gmail.com