Interview with ​Catherine Hobbs

Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Catherine Hobbs

10/12/2025

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Catherine Hobbs

Can you tell us about a book that has been important to you?

One of the books that really cut through the fog was the 1945 novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart. I discovered a remaindered copy in the back of a downtown bookstore I worked in as a student. The prose has muscle but also a lush spareness. It has stayed with me. Elizabeth Smart may also lie behind the character of Christine.

Why write flash fiction?

I have only written a bit of flash fiction. Because I think in episodes and I like selecting words carefully, as well as honing and polishing, it felt like a great fit. Like a fiction postcard.

Can you describe your writing practice?

I have a time each week to write and I make notes at other times. Recently, I have been considering how my thoughts seem more vivid at night, so I have been experimenting by composing with my (surreal, free-flowing) evening brain and editing with my (lucid/rational) morning brain.

Any advice to other writers?

Don’t fight yourself when you are in a compositional phase. Write the thing that calls you right when it calls you. Or it will escape.

Catherine Hobbs lives in Chelsea, Quebec. She received two honorable mentions in the 2017 Lorian Hemingway Competition and was a finalist for the 2023 Digging Press Chapbook Award. She has participated in Amplit Fest, Manhattan. Her writing has also appeared in funicular. She works as a literary archivist.