You should, by now, know the basic setup for our annual summer microfiction package: local authors write short short stories (between around 150 and 900 words) set in and around Dallas. For the first three years, that was the entire deal. I didn’t ask anything else. My job, as D Magazine‘s fiction editor, was easy.
This time around, we added an extra prompt. I came up with a list of 30 songs about Dallas or performed by local artists and asked each participant to use the song in any way they saw fit. Some took the song and built an entire world out of it and some just drew inspiration. In all cases, the title of the song became the title of the story. Each writer took his song and story in unexpected ways, though I suppose I expected no less from this talented crew.
Again, my job was easy. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be publishing each online, one per day. We’re kicking it off with author Latoya Watkins, who drew Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat.” Read it here. If you can’t wait for the others, you can always pick up a copy of the July issue at your nearest grocer.
Tomorrow night, as we have for the past three years, we will be doing a reading as part of Lit Night Dallas. This year, it will be online. You can find it here at 7 p.m.
