Josefina Estrada, “The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman,” translated by Margaret Jull Costa, is reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Muna Fadhi, “Prisoner of War,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Rubem Fonseca, “Night Drive,” from The Taker and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca, translated by Clifford E. Landers. Copyright © 2008 by Open Letter Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and translator.
Marcela Fuentes, “An Ugly Man,” first published in The Vestal Review, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Alberto Fuguet, “Lost,” from Shorts: Stories by Alberto Fuguet and translated by Ezra E. Fitz. Copyright © 2005 by Alberto Fuguet. English translation © 2005 by Ezra E. Fitz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Avital Gad-Cykman, “Fire. Water,” first published in Smokelong Quarterly, no. 6, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Petina Gappah, “The Lament of Hester Muponda,” first published in African Writing, no. 5, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Natasza Goerke, “Stories,” translated by W. Martin, originally appeared in Farewells to Plasma, published in 2001 by Twisted Spoon Press, Prague. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Judd Hampton, “Three-Second Angels,” first published in Smokelong Quarterly, no. 7, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Tania Hershman, “The Heavy Bones,” from The White Road and Other Stories (Salt Publishing Limited, 2009), is reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Randa Jarrar, “A Sailor,” published in Guernica/PEN Flash Series Online, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Franz Kafka, “An Imperial Message,” translated by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University. Reprinted by permission of the translator.
Etgar Keret, “The Story, Victorious” and “The Story, Victorious II,” from Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, translated by Miriam Shlesinger, Sondra Silverston, and Nathan Englander. English translation copyright © 2012 by Etgar Keret. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC and Atiken Alexander Associates, Ltd.
Kim Young-ha, “Honor Killing,” translated by Chi-Young Kim, was first published in Esquire online, Napkin Fiction, April 16, 2008. Reprinted by permission of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as agents for the author and by permission of the translator. Copyright © Kim Young-ha.
Tara Laskowski, “Little Girls,” from Smokelong Quarterly, no. 26, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Mónica Lavín, “Volcanic Fireflies,” is translated by Patricia Dubrava. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Kirsty Logan, “The Light Eater,” from The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales (Salt Publishing, 2014), is reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Robert Lopez, “Everyone Out Of the Pool,” published in Mid-American Review (2012), is reprinted by permission of the author.
Antonio López-Ortega, “Trilogy,” from Moonlit (1999), translated by Nathan Budoff, is reprinted by permission of Brookline Books.
Naguib Mahfouz, from The Dreams, copyright © 2000–2003 by Naguib Mahfouz. English translation copyright © 2004 by Raymond Stock. Used by permission of the American University in Cairo Press.
Luigi Malerba, “Consuming the View,” translated by Lesley Riva from Italian Tales, edited by Massimo Riva (Yale University Press, 2005), is reprinted by permission of the translator and the Estate of Luigi Malerba.
Giorgio Manganelli, “An Ouroboric Novel,” appears as “#75” in Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels (McPherson & Co., 2007), translated by Henry Martin. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Kuzhali Manickavel, “Everyone Does Integral Calculus,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
W. Somerset Maugham, “Appointment in Samarra,” epigraph from Sheppey. Reprinted by permission of United Agents on behalf of the Literary Fund.
Peter Zaragoza Mayshle, “Engkanto,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Cate McGown, “Arm, Clean Off,” originally appeared in Glimmer Train, 2003. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Jon McGregor, “That Colour,” from This Isn’t the Sort Of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, is reprinted by permission of the publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Copyright © 2012 by Jon McGregor.
Frankie McMillan, “Truthful Lies,” was first published in the collection The Bag Lady’s Picnic and Other Stories by Shoal Bay Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2001. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Margarita Meklina, “Four Hands,” translated by Anne O. Fisher, is reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Pierre J. Mejlak, “The Madonna Around Evelina’s,” translated by Antoine Cassar, published in The Transcript Review, no. 31. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Czesław Miłosz, “Esse,” from New and Collected Poems: 1931–2001. Copyright © 1988, 1991, 1995, 2001 by Czesław Miłosz Royalites, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and Penguin Books Ltd.
Augusto Monterroso, “Finished Symphony,” from Complete Works and Other Stories by Augusto Monterroso, translated by Edith Grossman. Copyright © 1995. By permission of the University of Texas Press.
Edward Mullany, “Reunion,” from the Alaska Quarterly Review, Fall/Winter 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Shabnam Nadiya, “Eating Bone,” from the Raleigh Review, vol. 2, 2011–2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.
María Negroni, “The Baby,” from Night Journey. Copyright © 2002 by María Negroni. Translation and introduction copyright © 2002 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.
Stefani Nellen, “The Attraction of Asphalt,” from Smokelong Quarterly, no. 17, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir, “The Egg Pyramid,” from Mother America, copyright © 2012 by Nuala Ní Chonchúir. Reprinted by permission of the publisher New Island Books.
James Norcliffe, “squeegee,” first published in The Dalhousie Review and in Villon in Millerton by James Norcliffe (Auckland University Press, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the publisher on behalf of the author.
Giannēs Palavos, “Joke,” English translation by Karen Van Dyck, was first published in The Brooklyn Rail, May 6, 2014. Reprinted by permission of the publisher NEFELI (Athens) and the translator.
Petronius, “The Young Widow,” translated by Robert Shapard, was adapted from The Satyricon.
Virgilio Piñera, “Insomnia,” translated by Alberto Manguel. Copyright © Alberto Manguel. Translation reprinted by permission of Guillermo Schavelzon & Asociados, Agencia Literaria.
Meg Pokrass, “Like a Family,” from Damn Sure Right (Press 53, 2011) first published in Juked magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Lili Potpara, “Amerika Street,” as translated by Kristina Zdravi Reardon, was first published, in different form, as “The Surprise” in World Literature Today, September 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Qiu Xiaolong, “From the Roaches’ Perspective,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Shirani Rajapaske, “Shattered,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Bruce Holland Rogers, “Aglaglagl,” first appeared in The Sun, Oct. 2010. Copyright © by Bruce Holland Rogers. Used by permission of the author.
Ethel Rohan, “Next to the Gutter,” from Cut Through the Bone: Stories by Ethel Rohan (Dark Sky Books, 2010). Reprinted by permission of the author. Editor’s title “The Gutter.”
Josephine Rowe, “The Vending Machine at End of the World,” from Tarcutta Wake: Stories (2012) is reprinted by permission of the University of Queensland Press.
Eric Rugara, “The Snake,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Juan José Saer, “Hotel Room,” translated by Kirk Nesset is reprinted by permission of Kirk Nesset and Guillermo Schavelzon & Asociados, Agencia Literaria.
Underlying rights © by the heirs to Juan José Saer c/o Guillermo Schavelzon & Asociados, Agencia Literaria, www.schavelzon.com.
Robert Scotellaro, “Fun House,” from Measuring the Distance (Blue Light Press 2012), originally published in Fast Forward, no. 4 (2011). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Daryl Scroggins, “Parting,” from This is Not the Way We Came In. Published by Ravenna Press in 2009. Copyright © 2009 by Daryl Scroggins. All rights reserved. Published by permission of the publisher, Ravenna Press, www.ravennapress.com.
H. J. Shepard, “please hold me the forgotten way,” published in blink again: sudden fiction from the upper midwest, edited by John Colburn, Michelle Filkins, and Margaret Miles (Spout Press, 2011). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Ana María Shua, “Traveling Freaks,” “Surprise,” and “Political Correctness,” are reprinted by permission of the author by arrangement with Literarische Agentur Mertin Inh. Nicole Witte. K., Frankfurt, Germany, and by permission of the translator, Steven J. Stewart. Editor’s title is “Without a Net.”
Edmundo Paz Soldán, “Barnes,” translated by Kirk Nessset. Published in the Chicago Review, Sept. 2011, vol. 56, no. 2/3. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Peter Stamm, “The Most Beautiful Girl,” translated by Michael Hoffman from In Strange Gardens and Other Stories (2006). Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Other Press.
Ricardo Sumalavia, “First Impressions,” translated by Daniel Alaracon, was first published in The Paris Review Daily, Jan. 23, 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
Karina Magdalena Szczurek, “Not Far From the Tree,” first published in Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, vol. 2, no. 1, 2009, is reprinted by permission of the author.
Zakaria Tamer, “The Five New Sons,” by Zakaria Tamer, translated by Ibrahim Muhawi, from Breaking Knees (2008), pp. 45–47. Reprinted by permission of the publisher Garnet Publishing.
James Tate, “Farewell, I Love You, and Goodbye,” from Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee. Copyright © 2002 by James Tate. Published by Verse Press. Reprinted with permission of Wave Books.
Antonio Ungar, “Honey,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Juan Villoro, “The Voice of the Enemy,” translated by George Henson, is reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
Bess Winter, “Signs,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Sholeh Wolpé, “My Brother at the Canadian Border,” from The Scar Saloon (2004) is reprinted by permission of the publisher Red Hen Press.
Yasunari Kawabata, “Sleeping Habit,” from Palm-of-the-Hand Stories, translated by Lane Dunlop and J. Martin Holman. Translation copyright © 1988 by Lane Dunlop and J. Martin Holman. Reprinted by permission of North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux LLC.
Yin Ee Kiong, “Ronggeng,” is reprinted by permission of the author.
Mohibulla Zegham, “The Tiger,” as translated by Rashid Khattak. Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
CHRISTOPHER MERRILL is the author of many books, most recently Boat (poetry), Necessities (prose poetry), and The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War (nonfiction). He is also a translator of several volumes and editor of many others. He directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
ROBERT SHAPARD has coedited seven books of very short fiction, including Flash Fiction Forward, Sudden Fiction International, and Sudden Fiction Latino, and cofounded Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. His own stories have won national awards; his flash chapbook is Motel and Other Stories.
JAMES THOMAS has coedited all of the Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction books. He is the founder of Quarterly West and the annual Writers@Work Conference. He has received a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford, a James Michener Fellowship, and two NEA grants. His story collection is Pictures, Moving.
More Praise for Flash Fiction International
“These sometimes brilliant, often cunning, always intriguing very short stories fit the moment, the Web, the world we live in now. A stunning flock of lovely and compelling pieces by wonderful writers from all over the world—it’s a remarkable and remarkably readable collection.”
—Frederick Barthelme, editor of New World Writing
“An illuminating world tour of literary bobby-dazzlers!”
—Bobbie Ann Mason, author of The Girl in the Blue Beret
“These bursts of illumination, some less than a page long—evoking shock, wonder, laughter, all with a tantalizing sense of completion—establish flash fiction on a global scale. An incomparable set of stories, this book is a new landmark anthology for the very short story form.”
—Jane Ciabattari, BBC book columnist
“This is the first major international anthology devoted to flash fiction—and it is very impressive. Rich, eclectic, and of the highest caliber.”
—Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler, editors of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, UK
“Tiny superb stories, no words wasted. And don’t miss the Flash Theory section at the end!”
—Susan Bernofsky, director of literary translation at Columbia University
“Like the most diligent of cultural anthropologists, the editors of Flash Fiction International have sifted through centuries of micro art to record and then exhibit these enduring small stories, common in their humanity but culturally distinct in their presentations. This anthology is a gift to the literary community, an important contribution to the understanding of the flash species in all its variegated forms.”
—Tara L. Masih, editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction
ALSO EDITED BY
ROBERT SHAPARD AND JAMES THOMAS
Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories
Sudden Fiction International
Sudden Fiction (Continued)
Flash Fiction Forward
New Sudden Fiction
Sudden Fiction Latino
ALSO EDITED BY JAMES THOMAS
Flash Fiction
Best of the West: New Short Stories from the
Wild Side of the Missouri (an anthology series)
ALSO EDITED BY ROBERT SHAPARD
Stories in the Stepmother Tongue
ALSO BY JAMES THOMAS
Pictures, Moving (stories)
ALSO BY ROBERT SHAPARD
Motel and Other Stories
ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER MERRILL
Boat (poetry)
Necessities (prose poetry)
The Tree of the Doves (nonfiction)
Only the Nails Remain (nonfiction)
The Four Questions of Melancholy: New and
Selected Poems of Tomaž šalamun (editor)
Scale and Stairs: Selected Poems of Heeduck Ra (translation)
Copyright © 2015 by James Thomas, Robert Shapard,
and Christopher Merrill
All rights reserved
First Edition
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830
Book design by JAM Design
Production manager: Louise Mattarelliano
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Flash fiction international : very short stories from around the world / edited by James Thomas, Robert Shapard, Christopher Merrill. — First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-393-34607-7 (pbk.)
1. Short stories. 2. Fiction—20th century. 3. Fiction—21st century.
I. Thomas, James, 1946– editor. II. Shapard, Robert, 1942– editor.
III. Merrill, Christopher, editor.
PN6120.2.F63 2015
808.83 1—dc23
2014043259
ISBN 978-0-393-35242-9 (e-book)
/> W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
Table of Contents
Title
Contents
Epigraph
Introduction
The Story, Victorious
Please Hold Me the Forgotten Way
Prisoner of War
The Waterfall
Eating Bone
Esse
The Gospel of Guy No-Horse
Man Carrying Books
The Attraction of Asphalt
Barnes
A Sailor
The Voice of the Enemy
An Imperial Message
Trilogy
Shattered
Bruise
Love
First Impressions
Fire. Water.
The Snake
An Ugly Man
The Lord of the Flies
Honor Killing
Signs
Idolatry
Lost
The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman
Sleeping Habit
Night Drive
Truthful Lies
The Tiger
Everyone Out of the Pool
The Baby
Aglaglagl
The Five New Sons
The Vending Machine at the End of the World
The Past
Everyone Does Integral Calculus
Little Girls
Ronggeng
Butterfly Forever
Labyrinth
The Light Eater
Late for Dinner
Volcanic Fireflies
Insomnia
Four Hands
Engkanto
Without a Net
Appointment in Samarra
The Hawk
The Egg Pyramid
An Ouroboric Novel
That Color
Like a Family
The Madonna Round Evelina’s
My Brother at the Canadian Border
Skull of a Sheep
Arm, Clean Off
Flash Fiction International Page 18
