Friday Five: Q&A with writer/’Art of Flash Fiction’ Substacker Kathy Fish

Although the Thanksgiving holiday is now behind us and we in the USA are deep into the throes of the holiday season, I’d like to extend Thanksgiving’s sense of gratitude just a bit longer with today’s Friday Five Q&A with writer Kathy Fish. Like many writers, I am grateful to Kathy for her example, her teaching, and her generosity of spirit.

Kathy’s work can be found in a vast array of literary magazines and anthologies. She’s even in The Norton Reader! Her works also appear in Ploughshares, Waxwing Magazine, Denver Quarterly, Mississippi Review online, Wigleaf, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, W. W. Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, and Flash Fiction America (W. W. Norton). Visit her Publications & Awards webpage for a more complete list.

In addition to being an exceptional writer of flash fiction and longer works, Kathy encourages many of her fellow writers through her Substack/newsletter, Art of Flash Fiction. Any writer wanting to become better at the craft — whether flash or otherwise — ought to read this newsletter. Through it, Kathy shares her perspectives on writing with an emphasis on flash fiction. In addition, she offers writing workshops, online and in person.

Read on for a brief — but longer than flash — look into Kathy’s perspective on writing, her influences, and advice for other writers.

1. Your monthly Art of Flash Fiction newsletter is a must-read resource for me, as I’m sure it is for many other writers. Why did you create this newsletter?

It was a decision made on a whim, on New Year’s Eve, 2020. One of those things you do out of a feeling of restlessness, I suppose. I had so much teaching material from years of teaching my online classes, and I wanted another means of showcasing it. And Substack looked fun. Now I offer a weekly paid version of the newsletter. To date, I’ve published 135 newsletters. 

2. What is it about flash fiction that most appeals to you, both as a writer and as a reader? 

I sort of fell into flash writing before I knew there was such a thing. I began writing in earnest when my four kids were still pretty young. As a busy mom, I wrote short things at my kids’ sports practices or in coffee shops with the two tiny ones in a stroller eating donuts (great mom, huh). Later, I did discover flash as its own form and absolutely fell in love with it. The challenge of creating a piece with emotion, movement, and resonance in fewer than 1,000 words was fun. I loved that I could experiment and innovate within the form. After many years, writing “small” has become second nature to me. 

3. What two or three writers have most influenced you and why?

Aimee Bender‘s collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, amazed me, the way she wrote so imaginatively and engagingly with such skill! I remember studying those stories. I still do. 

Someone told me early on that my stories reminded them of Joy Williams‘ so I read her collection, Taking Care. Again, I saw what could be done with short stories. I loved her strangeness and originality. I read everything she’d written after that. 

And of course, I have that orange brick of collected stories by Lydia Davis. That’s almost a requirement for flash writers. When I was first learning flash, there was a group of much more accomplished writers than myself I workshopped with and learned so much from. That group was founded by the extraordinary flash writer, Kim Chinquee. Oops, that four I guess!

4. In June, you announced on X/Twitter that you had been selected as a writer in residence at the Kerouac House in Florida this coming January and February. What will you focus on during this residency?

Thanks, Andrew. I was stunned to be selected for that residency, and so honored! My project for my stay there is to complete the new collection of flash fiction and prose poems I’ve been working on this past year. I need to polish what I have and add several new stories into the mix. Thematically, I’m writing about grief and loss, time and memory. It’s work I feel I will best be able to focus on with a good measure of solitude. And of course, I’ll be inspired by staying in the house where Kerouac wrote Dharma Bums. 

5. Finally, what advice would you offer aspiring writers?

I have so much advice, ha! But if there’s one thing I most want to impress upon new writers, it is that there is value to their own lives. No one has your unique set of experiences, skills, family background, world view, loves, losses, and weirdnesses. Honor and use what is uniquely yours and your authentic voice will shine through.