Read Varsha Venkatesh’s flash fiction piece here: expositionreview.com/issues/vol-i...!
#ExpoFam #litnoms #read
Congrats to #ExpoContributor @varshawrites86.bsky.social on making THE WIGLEAF TOP 50 VERY SHORT FICTIONS 2025 longlist for TELL THE BEES from our “POP!” issue! @willwriteforchai.bsky.social 🥳
Thank you to @samanito.bsky.social and the @wigleaf.bsky.social team!
Announcing the winners of our Flash 405: “Anchor” writing contest! Judge Ashley Moon said the pieces “stopped me in my tracks & held me in place.” Congrats to winners @amadolaila.bsky.social, Evelyn Krieger & Abigail Mills. Read their fiction & experimental work: tinyurl.com/Anchor405. #ExpoReview
I’ve taken the Senate floor and will speak for as long as I’m physically able to lift the voices of Americans who are being harmed and not being heard in this moment of crisis. Watch here:
Thank you for making #AWP25 amazing! We loved connecting irl, seeing/meeting more of our #ExpoFam & lit community, panels, bookfair & meaningful moments! It was an honor to celebrate 10 years of Expo on Thurs & to end w/ an Expo Fam-heavy night of poetry for LA fires! 🙏🫶🙌🥳
#ExpoReview
So much love for #awp25
@annleee.bsky.social @willwriteforchai.bsky.social @lilrensing.bsky.social @briannasmykreder.bsky.social
Last panel of the day!! Ready to mine some flash and micro inspiration ⚡️ #AWP25
More gems from @shzehuitjoa.bsky.social —
“Part of my own unique way of being by able to write about time and my experience, it was accepting that there were blanks.”
“Time is the ultimate enemy of the body; it only moves in one direction.”
“Fiction moves through time like it owns time.”
Thoughts on time and flash fiction from @jailthepoets.bsky.social:
“My favorite flash fiction pieces cover an entire lifetime in 1000 words—you have to be able to fly.”
Lot devices she recommends “Lists. Images that are contradictory but still relevant to the character.”
#ExperimentsinTime #AWP25
[Bending time] is “fiction’s sharpest knife; no other medium can do it as effectively. Why not use it?”
#ExperimentsinTime #AWP25
Love Rita Bullwinkel’s reflections on bending time in fiction:
“Really, humans do not experience time linearly ever, at any point. We experience things so associatively …
There’s a literary expectation of it, but our oral narrative is non-linear.”
“Often trauma feels like you are living in a loop. The psychic drive of the book is to break free of the loop.”
@shzehuitjoa.bsky.social on linearity: “Time is an elastic thing that you can pick up, play with, and set down. It is malleable to you, the god writing the book.”
#ExperimentsinTime #AWP25
So excited for the #ExperimentsinTime panel, featuring two folks from the Expo fam: @shzehuitjoa.bsky.social and Rita Bullwinkel! #AWP25 @expositionreview.bsky.social
Snagged @charlesjensen.bsky.social and @livesinpages.bsky.social at @sfwp.bsky.social! #AWP25 @willwriteforchai.bsky.social @briannasmykreder.bsky.social
Too excited to get @cdeskilson.bsky.social’s book AND the last zine at @acrebooks.bsky.social! #AWP25
#AWP25 Day 3. Woke up with my head full of ideas for stories, which hasn’t happened in what feels like years ♥️ Got to the convention center a little early to get a little bit of writing and reflecting done.
And that’s a wrap on #AWP25 Day 2!!
#AWP25 bookfair haul, Friday edition: excited to dive into these books and zines from the Expo fam @cdeskilson.bsky.social @breebaileypoet.bsky.social @tommydeanwriter.bsky.social
Also personally love this quote by Brenda Peynado —
“Theme is not something you pose on a story, it comes from where the characters heart comes from. The point of the story is to break that heart.”
#AWP25
Of course we had to love this quote by @gwenekirby.bsky.social —
“If you are interested in being part of the world of short stories, get your stories published in magazines.”
(Hint hint: we’re currently accepting short submissions for our April Flash contest!)
#AWP25 #LovetheShortStory
Last panel of Day 2, “The Love and Work of the Short Story.”
Agents & authors talked about crafting and publishing (and loving!) #shortstory collections ♥️
Common pitfalls of speculative short fiction from the editors on the panel:
“Oftentimes writers can get seduced by a fantastic fantastical premise, but sometimes it doesn’t work as a piece of fiction; it doesn’t have the character or plot to be cohesive.” — @lenavalencia.bsky.social
(1/2) #AWP25
“People try to put in too much, there’s not an ending, or it’s not really a story… Find what the heart and emotion of the piece is, and don’t try to answer all the questions in 1000 words.” — @crsutton.bsky.social
(2/2) #AWP25
Another great quote from Chelsea on the intersection of speculative and short fiction —
“Flash fiction allows for tools of poetry to come in: language, impressions, and emotions can take center stage.”
#BendingRealityinShortFiction #AWP25
“Speculative fiction can take something that feels intangible inside of you and make it physical, and explain to someone else what it means.” — @crsutton.bsky.social on how speculative fiction can represent underrepresented groups.
#BendingRealityinShortFiction #AWP25
On the path to writing genre-bending work:
Anjali Sachdeva: “I typically start with an image or a place.”
@lenavalencia.bsky.social: “I write towards [the genre elements].”
@cleoqian.bsky.social: “It’s about the mood of the story and using elements of different genres to create tension.”
#AWP25
(2/2)
“So much of our lives and lived experience is unreal: dreams, nightmares, imaginings. It’s a way to live that part of our lives in the page.” — @mlensheffer.bsky.social
“Life is weird, our bodies are weird, I don’t know how to write any other way” — @crsutton.bsky.social
First question at #BendingRealityinShortFiction #AWP25: What is the appeal of genre-bending?
“The uncanny is a great way to hook a reader; when you encounter something strange in the world or in fiction, you become more attuned to the world around you.” — @lenavalencia.bsky.social
(1/2)
@willwriteforchai.bsky.social here, taking over Expo’s social for #AWP25 Day 2! 👋🏻 I’m at “Unapologetically Uncanny and Unsettling: Bending Reality in Short Fiction” with Expo contributor @crsutton.bsky.social. Excited to explore genre-bending fiction!
