We’re so excited to share this Q&A with our friends at Short Reads, a brand-new (and free) literary magazine publishing out of Pittsburgh, PA!
Short Reads
What is Short Reads?
Short Reads is a free literary magazine featuring flash nonfiction, published online and via email every Wednesday morning. We showcase a mix of original essays and previously published pieces—work that appeared only in print or in now-defunct publications, or that we’re excited to bring to a new audience of readers. This is also a space for a community of writers and readers who believe in the power of true stories to share ideas and experiences, foster empathy, and help make sense of what can happen in a life.
Want to give it a try? You can read the first issues and sign up at short-reads.org.
Why flash?
There’s something really fun and satisfying about flash nonfiction: there’s a lot of flexibility with voice and time and structure, in ways that can be trickier to pull off in longer work. Also, the world throws a lot of information and noise at a lot of us, a lot of the time, and flash can be an antidote for that: a brief time-out that can take you out of yourself. We hope the work we feature will make readers think about something a little differently or see the world through fresh eyes and come back changed.
Also, logistically—since we’re an all-volunteer organization at this point—flash is easier to produce weekly than, say, intensive long-form work (which we also love).
Why did you decide to publish via email?
Email can be a real mixed bag, right—like a challenge to be conquered. We hope Short Reads adds an element of surprise and fun to readers’ inboxes. One of the things that’s unique about our approach is that the whole work is in the email; it’s not the kind of thing where you have to click out of your inbox, go to a website, etc. Each edition of Short Reads is a snack in your inbox, an invitation to take a little break but not to open yet another tab in your browser.
Tell us about the team behind Short Reads.
We’re a team of four for now, and we’ve actually all been working together for several years already. We were all at Creative Nonfiction together until late last year (you can read a little bit more about that here, if you’d like) and we’re tremendously excited to be able to keep working together on a new project and to have a lot more freedom to work collaboratively and explore our vision of what a literary organization can be and do.
How will Short Reads be different than the work you published at Creative Nonfiction?
We’re excited to take a more inviting and inclusive view of the nonfiction landscape, and to explore a tremendously diverse range of voices and perspectives and approaches. We’re also committed to fostering community and conversation, and to making space for new ideas and forms to grow.
It’s also fun and satisfying to be able to focus on one small thing, for now. The weekly, digital format means we can respond to work quickly and publish pieces that are timely.
What are your goals/plans/hopes?
For now, this is a labor of love, on the part of both staff and the writers whose work we’ve featured so far. We appreciate this show of support, but we definitely want to start paying contributors as soon as possible. (Being able to pay ourselves a little would be great, too!)
Like many people, we’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value of work and what work means, and what we value. Collectively, the four of us have nearly 50 years of experience working in indie publishing, and we’re very aware of the financial and other constraints . . . but we also emphatically reject the default scarcity mindset. Certainly there’s an abundance of great writing, and we think there’s also an audience that values that.
We’re working to establish a nonprofit organization, and then . . . you know, we’ll see where this goes! We’re really excited about the possibilities.
How can people support Short Reads?
Sign up—it’s free! And if you like it, consider sharing with a friend who might enjoy a bit of art in their inbox.
And if you really like it and want to support our efforts, you can chip in here to defray the hard costs of getting it up and running.
Finally, what’s with the donkey?
Our miniature donkey, Oatey, is small but she packs a kick—the perfect mascot for a publication featuring flash!
About the Short Reads team
HATTIE FLETCHER is a freelance editor and creative consultant who was previously the managing editor at Creative Nonfiction. She lives in Pittsburgh. Find her at hattie-fletcher.com.
ANNA HALL is a book designer based in Seattle. She was formerly the art director at Creative Nonfiction. Find her at annabhall.com.
STEPHEN KNEZOVICH is a freelance email marketing strategist. He was formerly the director of marketing for Creative Nonfiction. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and two kids. More at stephen-knezovich.com.
CHAD VOGLER is a freelance editor in Pittsburgh. He was previously the senior editor at Creative Nonfiction and can be found at chadvogler.com.
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