My first appearance in the Reader—following a few decades as a devoted reader—was in a fiction issue, and it always struck me as a fantastic way to round out a year of alternative newsweeklies. Of course to do it right we would have had to have planned it several months in advance, but Karen Hawkins—our digital managing editor—and I had both just started by the time it became clear, in early November, that no fiction issue had been scheduled for 2018. (To be fair, there were some real questions about the Reader’s future in general.)
Finding that talent takes effort. We had staff read each of those 90-ish pieces and vote, so that each piece was read, and voted on, three times. We then selected a final 30 stories based on those with the most votes for print publication, and another five for digital publication, just to be extra. Then we sent all that work off to copy editing, illustration, and layout.
With that, we’ll leave you to the flash fiction issue, and the 30 tiny worlds each story contains. You will recognize some of these worlds, find others infuriating, and learn to love more than one of them. Then when you see us again, it will be a new year. And you won’t believe what we have in store for you for 2019. v
