"Friends" by Jason Rice can be found in the fantastic online journal, failbetter. It's a solid he said/she said story, or maybe even more of a he thinks/she thinks story as the bulk of the story actually takes place within the heads of Charlie and Rebecca, the he and she in question.
There's a nice usage of a flashback which I think may be even more impressive when one considers the story is just under 2400 words. Starting off in Charlie's head, Rice drops in some nice little tidbits about Charlie's non-Rebecca related life - his job, others he works with, while still getting the reader to hone in on the fact that Charlie's pretty happy about something that occured the night before. After giving the reader Charlie's point of view, Rice starts off paragraph two with:
Rebecca didn’t check her messages when she got to work; she was trying to block the previous night out of her mind.
There's a bit right after this that I found a bit confusing, a comment that she's not answering the phone because the last time she did, it was the bank manager calling to tell her that her father had died. I say confusing as it made me question that first sentence - was she not checking messages simply because of whatever happened with her and Charlie, or was it more due to the decision to avoid phones?
Beyond that blip, the story goes to the flashback and then comes back front and center with the two actually connecting again in conversation (to a degree) and wraps everything up very nicely. I'll be looking for more work from Rice in the future.
Hello,
I’m an assistant to Lake Forest College Press/&Now Books (http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/engl/press.asp). We are encouraging submissions for The 4th Biennial &Now Festival of Innovative Writing & the Literary Arts (to be held in Buffalo, NY from October 15-17, 2009.
I was wondering you’d be willing to post information about the submission guidelines in your blog. Your help would be greatly appreciated!
The details are below.
Thank you,
Sarah
CALL FOR AUTHORS, CALL FOR WORK
The 4th Biennial &Now Festival of Innovative Writing & the Literary Arts will be held in Buffalo, NY from October 15-17, 2009.
The &Now Festival explores intersections between creative and critical praxes, examines innovative and experimental acts of writing, and advances a serious inquiry into theories of language.
PLEASE SUBMIT….
Critical papers, criti-fictional presentations, fiction readings, performance pieces (digital, sound, and otherwise), electronic and multimedia projects, and cross genre work of all kinds. Pieces that address linguistic transgressions, the limits of genre, or works that promote interdisciplinary explorations are particularly encouraged. Proposals can be for individual readings, critical panels, creative panels, and/or roundtable discussions.
Please send proposals by email in the following format:
*Title of Proposed Reading/Performance/Presentation
*Brief Description (no more than 500 words).
*Brief Bio (a few sentences) of all participants
*Tech needs (if any)
Submit all proposals to: andnow4@gmail.com
PROPOSAL DEADLINE: June 15, 2009.
Please note: Each session will be approximately 75 minutes. Individual presentations/readings should therefore be limited to 15-20 minutes so that grouped sessions that make thematic sense can be arranged.
For more information, visit:
http://www.english.buffalo.edu/andnow/
Or contact:
Dimitri Anastasopoulos at danastas@buffalo.edu or
Christina Milletti at milletti@buffalo.edu
Posted by: Sarah | May 18, 2009 at 08:35 PM