"Zig Zag" and "the missing girl" make the finalist list in best sMALL fictions 2018

My flashes "The Missing Girl" and "Zig Zag" have been named Finalists at BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2018, edited by Aimee Bender. They will be listed at the back of the book, along with 100 other finalists. Looking forward to reading all of them, and the anthology when it comes out. Given the thousands of flash that are published every year, this is quite an honor. "Zig Zag" won the flash and poetry contest at Midway Journal, judged by Michael Martone, earning me $500. "The Missing Girl" is the title flash in my chapbook.

​Unfortunately BEST SMALL FICTIONS did a poor job of informing writers. They sent an email saying you were a finalist but not for what story (I had three nominated) and also saying that you might be a winner but they wouldn't inform winners for several days. So I spent several days in a state of high anxiety checking my email repeatedly. Finally Twitter started to explode with writers announcing they were winners. It became apparent that I wasn't one. It took some of the luster off of being a finalist, which is an honor in itself but somehow no longer felt that way. At least at first.

Lots of flash writers I love among the winners: Lori Sambol Brody, Lydia Davis (!), Kathy Fish (for my favorite flash this year), Melissa Goode, Ashley Hutson, Meg Pokrass, Bud Smith, Jan Stinchcomb, Kaj Tanaka. Other writers I love that I don't associate with flash. Still others I've never heard of, some from print journals. And some finalists and semi-finalists I'd really have liked to see in the anthology (Cathy Ulrich, Jolene McIlwain, others).