There are four short pieces from Lucy Corin. Did she submit four, or were there more for you to select those that you really wanted to include? Do you find yourself editing shorter pieces such as this as rigidly, or perhaps even more so, than you do longer works? I notice that Corin doesn't use actual names for any of her characters in these pieces - is that something that possibly caught your attention as you read for this issue?
Aaron Burch
Lucy sent a handful and then, if I remember correctly, we asked her to send a handful more. And then maybe even a handful more. (Which is similar to what happened with Gabe Durham, which I'm sure I'll bring up again then.) They were all great, obviously, as Corin is undeniably awesome, but when considering short-shorts for the print issue, I tend to look for collections, maybe 2-5 pieces, that really work together and that build toward a whole that is greater than the sum of their parts, as opposed to a kind of random assortment of shorts, as great as they may be. Also, of course, with theme issues such as this one, I'm not only looking for shorts that work together but that fit the theme. Lucy, I believe, is working on a book length collection of these "Apocalypse" shorts, and so we worked on gathering a handful together that were both outdoors-y and complimented one another. We also got to feature some of ours favorites that maybe felt slightly less "outdoors-y" on our website.
How much editing happens really depends on each specific story more than its length, though, usually, these shorter pieces actually require very little if any comments or edits because the authors of such short pieces, and Corin is certainly an example of this, have already given a poet's eye to every little detail.
I think what I like about the lack of names in these pieces -- and it seems like this, again, is common in such short pieces, though certainly not a general rule -- is the kind of vagueness and lack of specificity that it conjures, a kind of "this could be anyone," idea that butts up against the specificity and precision of the language necessary in brevity.
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