Andy writes!

Tommy Dean

The genre of flash fiction has become more popular and visible in recent years, thanks to the work of people like today’s Friday Five writer, Tommy Dean. A writer of “mostly flash fiction,” as he puts it on his website, Dean also is an editor of the flash fiction literary magazine Fractured Lit and a writing coach who offers editing services and writing workshops. He is the author of Hollows (Alternating Current Press, 2022), a collection of flash stories, and two flash fiction chapbooks, Special Like the People on TV (Redbird Chapbooks, 2014) and Covenants (ELJ Editions, 2021). He has been previously published in The Lascaux Review, New World Writing, and Pithead Chapel. His stories have been included in Best Microfiction 2019 and 2020. He lives in Indiana with his wife and two children, and he and I share the common experience of having detasseled corn in our youth.

A few months ago, I reviewed several old writings, short stories and essays I’d written in the late 1990s through early 2000s. I set aside several pieces I decided weren’t worthy of further work at this time, and focused on revising or rewriting a few that I thought might find a home in some literary journal. One of them is a 1,500-word short story called “Hypnotist.” I dusted it off, submitted it to five or six journals, and when a brand new student-run journal called Red String contacted me with a request to publish it, I happily and readily agreed. They published the story here a few weeks ago. I’m posting it below as well so that I have it in my archives and to correct the spelling of “Cobain,” which was misspelled in the published version.

Trigger warning: the story is rather dark. Proceed with caution.

Andy writes!

Friday Five: Q&A with flash fiction writer and editor Tommy Dean

Recently published: ‘Hypnotist’ (short story)