thirteen

from thirteen – 52|250’s first Quarterly Review Welcome to the fine art of flash fiction On these pages you will find the best stories from the first thirteen weeks of the writing challenge that began in May, 52|250 A Year of Flash, lovingly selected and collected. You’ll also find a page that features our most loyal flashers and an interview with one of our art contributors. The features in this quarterly represent a high level of storytelling in 250 words or less. We find them extraordinary, and we think you will too. From heartbreaking to hilarious, they offer the reader a glimpse at what can be done with a less-is-more approach.  Sometimes a character caught our attention; sometimes it was the completeness of a story.  In all cases, these  flashes are superbly crafted gems. Short sharp fiction is not always easy, but these authors make it look so.  Our collective hats are off to them. A little more about the contents… As a special feature, we asked our most frequent flashers to write a new story specifically for this quarterly. Each one is 250 words or less, of course. And each one tells our readers something more about the person behind their stories. Please see Flashers flash themselves to read about our ten most frequent flashers.  And congratulations especially to Matthew Hamilton,  Catherine Russell and Susan Tepper, all of whom wrote thirteen stories in the first thirteen weeks. For a closer look at photographer Ziggy Blicharz, check out Flashing with an artist. Ziggy’s photos were featured three times in 52|250′s first thirteen weeks. His eye for detail and the way he finds brilliance in the tiniest thing has caught our attention, and  his art fits beautifully with the idea of flash fiction. You can also go to Your Editors like to flash, too… as well, where the editors highlight their favorites of each other’s stories from the first thirteen weeks — because, although we like wearing our editing hats, we also like telling stories and are honored to include our writing alongside the other selections in this issue. On this page you’ll also find out a little more about each of us, as we joined our most frequent flashers in the challenge to write a story about ourselves. Thank You . . . We would like to thank all of 52|250‘s contributors for their stories and art, which have turned this into a fantastic adventure.  52|250 has grown from a project to a community.  We continue to be amazed by the words which dance across our pages, the commitment to creativity, and the way one idea can give birth each week to so many wonderful voices. Readers can view all of 52|250′s weekly flashes at 52|250 A Year of Flash. We are already looking forward to our next Quarterly Review, due out in January 2011, which is certain to feature more outstanding storytelling and artwork from writers and artists both already familiar to us and entirely new. thirteen also thanks all of our readers. We hope you’ll feel free to comment. Please stop by A place to share at the end of these pages. Welcome! Yours, Michelle Elvy                 John Wentworth Chapin                  Walter Bjorkman thirteen thanks our own Walter Bjorkman for the flashy artwork on our masthead.