Flash fiction | Adam Reger | Freelance Writer

April 19, 2013

Sentences from News Story on Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects Rendered as Prose Poetry

From several of the more prosaic sentences in this Wall Street Journal piece about the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, I’ve constructed what’s either a prose poem or a piece of flash fiction. Here it is:

“A Look at the Brothers”

By Alison Fox, Sara Germano, Siobhan Gorman, Evan Perez, and Adam Reger

On the table in front of the two young men is a chicken dinner, ranch dressing and a jug of orange juice in a room that resembles a dorm kitchen.

Others started sending him “photographic gifts” on the site that included police cars, sticks of dynamite and, in one case, a brick.

The date of the photos wasn’t clear.

Attempts to reach the photographer were unsuccessful.

A second uncle also lives in the area.

There are quite a few auto-body shops.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

April 15, 2011

New Stories at Used Furniture Review

I have not one but two flash-fiction pieces up at Used Furniture Review, a great and classy online lit mag that is worth your time. I’m pleased not only to publish them, but for them to appear together, as they’re both what we might call “math lit”: experiments with the number of words in a sentence and the number of sentences in a paragraph or section. It’s a fun limitation to play with, and these are the rare pieces where I was pleased with the result.

March 29, 2011

New Story

I have a piece of flash fiction up over at Prick of the Spindle, a great online lit mag publishing lots of interesting fiction, non-fiction, interviews, and (I will have to take others’ word on this) poetry. My story is called “Root Canal” and is about, yes, a time I had a root canal. It’s very strongly connected, in my mind, to my first year in Pittsburgh. Not only did I have the aforementioned root canal then, but the other thing in the story—a noisy upstairs neighbor—was also a big factor in my life. Reading over it now really takes me back to those heady days in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood. Anyway, I’m quite proud of it and excited to be published in Prick of the Spindle.

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July 14, 2010

Lyrics of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner,” Reformatted as Flash Fiction

I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner. I am waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee.

And he fills it only halfway. And before I even argue he is looking out the window at somebody coming in.

“It is always nice to see you,” says the man behind the counter to the woman who has come in. She is shaking her umbrella.

And I look the other way as they are kissing their hellos.

I’m pretending not to see them. Instead I pour the milk.

I open up the paper. There’s a story of an actor who had died while he was drinking. It was no one I had heard of.

And I’m turning to the horoscope and looking for the funnies when I’m feeling someone watching me and so I raise my head. There’s a woman on the outside looking inside. Does she see me?

No, she does not really see me because she sees her own reflection. And I’m trying not to notice that she’s hitching up her skirt. And while she’s straightening her stockings her hair has gotten wet.

Oh, this rain it will continue through the morning. As I’m listening to the bells of the cathedral I am thinking of your voice…

And of the midnight picnic once upon a time before the rain began…

I finish up my coffee. It’s time to catch the train.

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Tag: Flash fiction