Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with ​T.M. Stielow

What was the first book you remember picking up and reading by yourself? ​ Winnie the Pooh. But my mother had read it to me and with me many times before I picked it up on my own, so if that doesn’t count, then—and I’m not proud of this— The Hardy Boys. What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?

Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie brought me to tears in twelve pages and convinced me that I don’t need to plan a novel to get, and perhaps even offer, catharsis when writing. Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers? “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” by George Saunders. Read the book for all the nuts and bolts advice, of course,

but if possible listen to him read the intro on the audiobook. He is so passionate about the writing process and the potential for writing to affect people in meaningful ways. Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style? ​ I am not pretending to measure up to this, but I want to say Lucia Berlin because I love her style so much and go

Why write flash fiction?

So that 3500 word story I wrote and loved needed editing and editing and more editing. And then I realized that most of the “clever” parts were superfluous and self indulgent. Setting out to write flash after that gave me a totally different perspective on what parts of a story are actually essential.  What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Read a ton of journals to see what they are about and find the ones that match something about your style. Then, when you are sitting there deciding which single journal to send your work to, send it to ten instead. Then send it to ten more. And then, yeah, ten more.  ​ ​

How much of yourself is in your characters? ​ Probably too much. Or, maybe: hopefully too much. I’m not sure which answer fits better.

T.M. Stielow writes fiction and music at home in Delta, British Columbia. Their work often, perhaps accidentally, explores doubt, isolation, and introversion.  ​

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with ​Snehal Bhadani

What was the first book you remember picking up and reading by yourself? ​When I was a kid, my dad used to bring me to the neighbourhood library and I’d pick out as many books as I wanted. The first major series I remember reading on my own was Nancy Drew. Seventeen years later, I still go back to that same library and pick out whatever calls to me.

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers? Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It is thoughtful, encouraging, and wonderfully humane. It makes writing feel less intimidating and more possible.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style? I am still developing my style, but I have certainly been shaped by writers like Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf, and more recently, Han Kang. I am drawn to writing that is intimate, searching, and attentive to emotional texture. Why write flash fiction?

I love flash fiction and micro creative nonfiction because they allow you to preserve a particular thought, image, or moment without having to build an elaborate plot around it. It can also expand your reader base by making your work feel more accessible and easy to read and less intimidating to new readers or to those without time to indulge in longer pieces. What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Put your work out there. You never know where it might resonate. At the same time, try not to place all your hopes on one journal. Keep building your portfolio, keep submitting, and the  good news will come on its own. What makes a piece feel finished to you? ​ I find finishing a piece to be the hardest part. Usually, I stop editing when I feel that adding more words would only dilute that core feeling. A piece feels finished when the emotion settles and leaves just enough unsaid.

Why write at all? I think human beings are born to create, whether through writing, art, tools, software, apps, or anything else they make with intention. For me, writing is one way of documenting my life and it comforts me to know that I've created something tangible that can be found and felt by others. What do you hope a reader carries away from your work? ​ I hope a reader walks away with a sense of resonance, as though they have briefly inhabited a familiar emotional space. If someone finishes a piece and feels that it has verbalised something they had felt but never quite articulated, that feels like a real success to me.

Snehal Bhadani is an emerging writer based in Singapore whose work spans poetry, creative nonfiction, and haiku. Her writing has previously appeared in trampset, Blue Marble Review,and an anthology by Wingless Dreamer Publishers. ​

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Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Rachel Noelani Bovee

What is the first book you remember reading all by yourself?  If you believe family lore, I have been reading books alone since I was an infant, preferring to curl into the corners of my playpen, working my way through a stack of picture books, instead of being held or played with. And, as the daughter of a single working mom, most of my childhood afternoons after school were spent at the San Francisco Chinatown Library, balancing haunting the stacks

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer? ​ ​I always loved books and always daydreamed about being a writer but it wasn't until I started to read more disturbing and poignant stories (a few: Red Azalea by Anchee Min, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston) that being a writer felt tangible and true.

Is there a craft book that you would recommend? Honestly, I kind of hate craft books. I know that's a hot take and I fully admit they are useful and brilliant (most recently loved "Literature Class, Berkeley 1980") but I feel like obsessively reading any and all novels - "good" or "bad" - you can get your hands on is how you really learn craft.  Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

Oof, currently, my writing style feels like a collage of every written thing I've ever read, every filmed thing I've ever seen, every place I've ever been, every person I've ever talked to. That's a crappy answer, but it's not untrue.  Why write flash fiction? Flash feels so authentic to me. Novels are captivating and short stories are exciting but, in reality, we experience our lives in small vibrant experiences that we sew

Rachel Noelani Bovee, a hapa Native Hawaiian from San Francisco, received her MFA from California College of the Arts, writes fiction & essays, and is currently working on her debut novel. Rachel lives with her partner and two toddlers in Seoul where she works as a professor at Kyunghee University. ​

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Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with ​Lisa Finch

What was the first book you remember picking up and reading by yourself? I think it was Charlotte’s Web. What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer? ​Initially it was everything Lucy Maud Montgomery ever wrote. Later, there were so many other writers and books. I’m not sure I can pinpoint which were the biggest influences.

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers? On Writing, by Stephen King. Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style? I can’t pick just one. I haven’t landed on one particular genre--I write literary, horror, sci fi, romance, romantic comedy, and others—so I’ve had many influences. A few of them include Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood,     Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Sarah Addison Allen, Carol Joyce Oates, Lori Lansen,  Jennifer Weiner. The list goes on.

Why write flash fiction? I love that you have to make every word count, and the challenge of creating that precise ending that ties it all together. What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals? Get used to rejection. If you’re lucky, there might be a nugget of constructive criticism in there that you can use. However, most often they are form letters. But don’t let that stop you. Keep reading. Keeping writing. Keep submitting.

What would you tell your younger self if you could? Start writing and submitting stories now. Don’t wait until you think you’re good enough. Put yourself out there and don’t be discouraged by rejection. It’s part of the learning curve. What would you recommend as a resource for other writers? ​Consider volunteering as a slush reader. You learn so much by reading other writers' submissions, and from the editorial team (who are usually writers themselves).

What was your favourite editorial comment on one of your stories? One of my stories was accepted with this comment: "It's a wonderful, concise, funny, dark, and crunchily-weird story that is exactly what I'm looking for…" Any other projects you want to tell us about? I’m currently seeking an agent for an upmarket vampire novel (Monsters in our Midst). Also, I have a novella (Didn’t I Love You?) that is still looking for a home.

Lisa Finch lives and writes in Forest, Ontario. Her stories have appeared in over 25 publications. Her website is lisafinchwrites.wordpress.com

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Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with ​Elizabeth Murphy

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers? Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style? ​ I like the restrained style of the Irish writer, Claire Keegan, and her ability to create tension without drama.

Why write flash fiction? Why tell a story in 2000 words when it can be told in 500 or 1000? What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals? ​ Write for the sake of writing, for personal expression. Enjoy the process. That way, the rejections hurt less.​

What have you read this past year that you really liked? ​ The Adversary, The Innocents (Michael Crummey), Birnam Wood (Eleanor Catton), Claire Keegan (everything she has published). What do you not read? I don’t read murder mysteries or detective stories. I make an exception for Patricia Highsmith. Instead of the Whodunnits, she wrote Whydunnits.

What do you strive for in writing? I aim for an original voice, interesting characters, and an original storyline. What advice would you give regarding editing? ​ For me, the best approach to editing is to put the piece away for a few weeks or months. That distance allows me to see weaknesses that might not have been obvious in earlier drafts. Also, I cut mercilessly.

Elizabeth’s second novel, The Weather Diviner, was nominated for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the 2024 BMO Winterset Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Nixes Mate Review, Reckon Review, Tiny Molecules, and other journals. Originally from Newfoundland, she now lives in Canada’s Ocean Playground, Nova Scotia.

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Blending Flash Fiction & Art