This month’s Mondettes are from the illuminating Elisa Dominique Rivera.
Elisa is a Filipina living in Boonwurrung Country, Australia writing her way out of homesickness. She won a prize in the 2022 Writers' Playground Competition for her spec-fic, "Free Range". Her poems appear in FromOneLine Anthologies, and Musing Publication's "The nuances of new-age feminism" issue. She has prose published and upcoming in Roi Fainéant Press, Porch Lit Magazine, Every Day Fiction, 101words.org and ParagraphPlanet.com. She was nominated for the 2023 Pushcart Prize for her micro "Inheritance: A story in pseudo programming language" by NFFD's UK Write In.
Elisa is on X: @twitnikki or BlueSky: @nikkirivera.bsky.social
If you aren’t familiar with her work, here’s one of her pieces to start things off:
A People Pleaser’s Six Course Meal (Elisa Dominique Rivera | Porch Lit Mag)
Why I like it: It’s always wonderful to see how a story progresses after it has been workshopped in one of my courses; and this is one that stuck with me for its creativity and ambition. I love the thematic cohesion here and how each segment shifts the story and the emotions to another level.
House of Cicadas (Gabriela Lee | Craft Literary)
Why I like it: I love the way the writer broke the story into three parts to highlight the young protagonists’ relationship: the way they played, and their longing for each other. I also like reading the details of their child play, so innocent, yet mysterious, supernatural forces surround them. Besides the evocative tone, I loved the simple, yet very strong connection between the two MCs emphasised by contrasts: dark and light, above and below, living and dead.
PROMPT: Write a flash that evokes contrasting moods or worlds to emphasise the themes or highlight the characters.
Lunacy (Ah-Reum Han | Electric Literature)
Why I like it: The imagery and the themes of this piece sang to me like a fairy-tale rhyme. I like the judgemental tone along with the themes of gratitude, loss and not-belonging which effectively put a spotlight on the characters, their traits, and how they impact each other.
PROMPT: Write a story told as a fairy tale with themes of trust and integrity.
Out of Breath (Julia Ruth Smith | Sledgehammer Lit)
Why I like it: This piece has no punctuation. And the result is a breathless, non-stop, urgent, anxious voice. I love that the title and the writing style allows the reader to not only read about being “out of breath” but also experience being mentally out of breath throughout the story. So very clever!
My mother has become an owl (Jane Broughton | Free Flash Fiction)
Why I like it: A heart-breaking story about caring for parents in their old age and the inevitability of letting go. I like this piece because the extended metaphor emphasises the change in their mother and the shifting dynamics between mother and children. Emotionally charged last paragraph.
PROMPT: Write a story with an extended metaphor anchored with a theme and character.
Emergency Contact (Marcus Tan | SmokeLong Quarterly)
Why I like it: At its heart, this story is about loneliness and how we as humans choose to deal with it. With the backdrop “the end of the world” and the acceptance of fate, this story is centred on friendship and the way we connect with each other. I love its gentle tone and focus on the interaction between the two protagonists. What an endearing piece.
My best shot (Liv Strom | Guilty Crime Story Magazine)
Why I like it: The narrator of this story is so well-developed with their motivation and actions set up to reflect the vengeance they are seeking. There’s tension here, but also poignancy.
The truth behind Hailey’s arachnophobia (Anika Carpenter | Ellipsis Zine)
Why I like it: A story told in three parts with alliterative subheadings. This alliteration links everything together and provides an answer to the title. Although it’s told in third person, the narrator’s voice reels us into the web of Hailey’s world.
The doomed moons of Mars (T.L. Tomljanovic | Sci Fi Shorts)
Why I like it: So much action in so few words. The world built for the main character is so clear and solid, it feels like we are watching it on TV. The sparseness of the writing and the use of short phrases seems to mimic how the characters are being economical about their sustenance.
A single memory, remembered differently (Sumitra Singam | Cheap Pop)
Why I like it: This piece is amazing not only for the scene pictured and intimately shared with the reader, but also for the things left unsaid, between the lines. I loved the gentle voice and the tone of the story is light with a dark elephant sitting in the corner of the room.
The window is open during Summer (Hasya Nindita | Porch LitMag)
Why I like it: The title is also a statement repeated at certain points in the story, which I love because it anchors the story to its theme of longing and coming home. The writing is simple, to allow for a multi-layer interpretation.
What did you think of these choices? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments - have you found a new favourite piece? Did you try out one of the prompts?
Next month’s selection will be chosen by Gillian O’Shaughnessy and will be appearing (fingers crossed) on the 21st May.
Opportunities to work with Matt
Write Beyond the Lightbulb
Colourful Characters (5th-18th August 2024): BOOK NOW!!!
Go With The Flow (9th-22nd September 2024): FIND OUT MORE (GET YOUR NAME ON THE PRIORITY LIST!)
Glorious Words (7th-20th October 2024): FIND OUT MORE (GET YOUR NAME ON THE PRIORITY LIST!)
Editing
NOVEL / NOVELLA EDITING: First steps review, structural review, line edit, proof edit, submission review
EDITING FOR COLLECTIONS: structural overview report, line edit, proof edit
SHORT FICTION EDITING: Structural review, line edit, detailed edit, proof edit