How did you first come to writing flash fiction? What is it about the form that resonates?
I have always been drawn to the misfit forms, alternative takes, and independent ventures outside the mainstream, and in the writing world it was specifically prose poetry and flash fiction. I’ve been writing prose poetry for 25 years, long before I even knew flash fiction was a thing. So I think my attraction to the form was an extension of my work in prose poetry.
I became a poet because I didn’t have the stamina to be a novelist. My mind works like a fireworks display – loud and attention-getting at first, colorful but fleeting, and then it’s over. Working briefly just works better for me. I have too many ideas swimming in the same river. Rather than follow one all the way out to sea, I am compelled to uncover and explore as many small, microscopic stories as I can.
How does a story begin?
I wish I had a good answer here. I rarely sit down and think, today I am going to write a story about crickets with amputated legs and wings who compose a symphony for the apocalypse. Instead I am prompted by something I see or hear that sends my mind racing down rabbit holes, and usually at a time when I’m not in a position to write. The idea might be centered on a single thought or idea, but what it becomes is something I simply cannot preconceive. Things start to happen once I sit down, and the mix of the day’s white noise and conversations and mind-numbing scrolling on a screen or any notes I have scribbled takes over. All of these disparate parts meet up and start to liquify while hot in my mind. Then, if I am lucky, they spill onto the page and cool into some sort of solid I hope to salvage.
How did publishing your first book change your writing? What have the differences been since?
My first chapbook was accepted in 2019 by a small press – a good 20+ years after I started writing with any serious intent to publish individual pieces or a collection. When the pandemic hit it put that book on indefinite hold. Then, during the pandemic, I was awarded the James Tate Poetry Prize in 2020 from SurVision Books, with a physical book arriving in 2021. It was weird as it became my first book that I was able to share, but not actually my first book. It was a surrealist tour of the absurd, which by its nature is going to have a limited audience. I kept thinking this would’ve been better as my second book. This year, my first book is back on, so when it’s published I’ll let you know how that feels! But the takeaway is this: however you slice firsts or seconds, the fact of someone else choosing you and your work is simply a confidence builder to keep writing, to keep doing your thing. We don’t get into this for the money or notoriety, so in my experience nothing else has changed. It’s simply a lifelong itch I feel compelled to scratch and it’s a joy to find others who appreciate your affliction.
Do you have a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I joke that daily schedules are for people who have all the means and none of the responsibilities of the rest of us working hacks. My writing (at least my flash/micro writing) doesn’t pay the rent or taste very good alongside a bowl of ramen. I run my own business (branding/messaging/marketing), I have clients, I have three kids, I have a wife. Which is to say I have a life that largely isn’t under my control. This is why it took 20+ years to publish a book. My writing doesn’t get high rankings on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but it is a need. I steal moments from the day, mostly late at night when the world is asleep, unpack all of the nonsense rattling in my brain, lay it bare in front of me, and say ‘talk to me’. That’s my writing routine.
Now the curveball. I’ve had the most challenging 15 months of my life – work, health, family, finances – in many ways a pillar within each of these aspects of life has collapsed to near rubble. It’s not the way we plan for and envision life unfolding. And I would be lying if I said it hasn’t been rough. But within hardship also resides joy. This stripping away of many of the comforts (dare I call them expectations) has given me such a stronger appreciation of what I get to do. And writing is one of them. When I have nothing, or more realistically a lot less, I still have my creative mind, my faculties, and an ability to write. With more time on my hands lately, I’ve written an entire draft novella-in-flash in a ridiculously short period of time. What took 20+ years the first go around has taken 25 days in this strange chapter of my life. I don’t begrudge any of it – the long route or the shorter one. But both came washing up on my shore coupled with tremendous sacrifices.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
There are so many journals that I admire, too many to list here, especially as the online scene seems to grow exponentially each year. That said, I am fond of the experimental and independent route taken by zines such as HAD and Rejection Lit. I dig Spartan and One Sentence for their minimalism and brevity. I’m a fan of the leaves – Longleaf and Wigleaf. I adore the visual beauty and content of Ran Off with the Star Bassoon because presentation matters. But more than any “dream publication” you hear people talking about, I have a deep fondness for those that spoke something into me (indie or academic), those that encouraged me to think I might have a seat at their table, and those that said yes to me regardless if it was for poetry, micros, flash or CNF or my artwork/paintings. Because let’s be honest, this should be about building connections and relationships, not just a byline and a fleeting humble brag on social media. I’m the kind of person who would prefer to be in a position to send a note that says “Hey Malcolm, how are you holding up? How’s the fam?” That takes time. It also takes a first yes. But it’s also much more fulfilling to me than saying, “dude, I got a banger of a flash for you” while also sending it to half a dozen other places, too. So thank you, Malcolm, for taking an interest in me and my work (Strawberries is a favorite, too). I hope you and the fam are well.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
In the past year or so I’ve been introduced to Ben
Niespodziany, Evan Williams, Evan Nichols, and others who speak my language of
the peculiar, of the nonsensical and absurd. I am cut from the cloth of James
Tate, Russell Edson and Charles Simic. I am seeing an exciting and undeniable
movement in this camp of writing influenced by these greats, and I’m glad to be
witness to and part of it, even if it is from the cheap seats. I’ve been
enjoying Mike Nagel’s essays and everything that comes out of Michael Wheaton’s
Autofocus magazine and book imprint. I also make a conscious effort to read
outside of my lived perspective. Lately I’m spending time with the poems of
Fatimah Asghar, Clint Smith, Solmaz Sharif, Natalie Diaz, Jennie Xie, and
Claire Schwartz. But my nightstand also includes those old favorites who molded
me long ago, along with contemporaries such as Zachary Schomburg, Matthea
Harvey, Mathias Svalina and Susanne Buffam. These are writers I return to
often. There is a beautiful awakening when rereading poems and prose poems and
flashes. Life is messy, and I marvel at how something I loved long ago speaks
differently in a new season of life, while also finding things I overlooked or
didn’t feel a decade or two ago. To me this is an important reminder of why I
need to read physical books and hard-copy zines, while also supporting our
ezine trailblazing friends who are cultivating and pushing out new and fresh
voices for us to discover.
Thad DeVassie is a writer and artist/painter who creates from the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. He is the author/artist of YEAR OF STATIC (Ghost City Press, 2021) containing original paintings and micro prose, and SPLENDID IRRATIONALITIES, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize (SurVision Books, 2020). His chapbook, THIS SIDE OF UTOPIA, is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press in 2023. You can find more of his written and painted works at www.thaddevassie.com.
A piece of his flash fiction appeared in the ninth issue.