October 2023
Ten stories picked by Anita Goveas
This month’s Mondettes are from the wonderful Anita Goveas.
Anita is British-Asian, London-based, and fuelled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, most recently by Atlas and Alice. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction, and is a submissions reader for The Selkie.
Her debut flash collection, ‘Families and other natural disasters’, is available from Reflex Press. She blogs about stories at https://coffeeandpaneer.wordpress.com
BlueSky: @coffeeandpaneer.bsky.social
Twitter: @coffeeandpaneer
If you aren’t familiar with Anita’s work, here’s one of her pieces to start things off:
Pluck, scrub, crush (Anita Goveas | Atlas and Alice)
Why I like it: the fantastic sense of rhythm created from the various groups of three that echo the rhythm of the title, the richly-conjured sensory details, the paragraph framing of “in the morning” / “in the afternoon” / “in the evening”, the collective voice - so much mesmerising craft here!
Salt (Avitus B. Carle | Milk Candy Review)
Why I like it: the way the mix of short and long sentences build rhythm and carry you along, the use of extended imagery, and that the narrative surprises you with where it goes.
Last Day Cupcakes (Jeffrey Yamaguchi | Okay Donkey)
Why I like it: the way the voice drives you through the little acts of rebellion that build up to a bigger picture of one person’s life, the layers of humour and pathos, and how the ending feels exactly right.
PROMPT: It’s your last day at a job you’ve hated and you’ve just found out your boss is throwing you a surprise leaving do. What do you do?
Tea and Seeds (Yasmine Yu | Cincinnati Review)
Why I like it: how it captures such a physical act so beautifully and the way the detailed description of one central image expands to cover huge topics like cultural inheritance and loss of culture.
Anatomy of three instructions (Harsimran Kaur | JMWW)
Why I like it: the raw, visceral language, the little details that make the surreal relatable like the Royal Dansk cookie-cum-sewing box, and the clever use of footnotes.
55,000 Miles for a Pound of Honey (Rachael Smart | Ellipsis Zine)
Why I like it: the brilliant use of neology (a word I learnt from the author bio), the originality of the ending, and just the lushness of the language.
PROMPT: make a list of 5 nouns, 5 verbs and 5 adjectives; combine some of them to make at least 5 new words; then try and use them in a story
The Encyclopedia of Endings (Lillie E. Franks in Atlas and Alice)
Why I like it: the creativity of the structure, how the inventiveness doesn’t overwhelm the story so it’s still very readable, and how much truth there is about endings.
Feeding on the Thamirabarani Metro (M.L. Krishnan in Fractured lit)
Why I like it: it captures a difficult subject in a memorable way, the use of third person plural, and how the language is raw but still sings.
More Than an Acquired Taste (Shareen K. Murayama | Flash Frog)
Why I like it: the way it uses food to illustrate culture clash, the details of the family threaded throughout, and the contrast between the safety of the shared meals and the outside world.
Miranda (Tara Campbell | Electric Lit)
Why I like it: the way the format leads you through such an important subject, how it still has emotional resonance, and that it makes you think.
PROMPT: Write a flowchart or a quiz about a difficult moment
A Tiger’s List (Lu Han | Lost Balloon)
Why I like it: the first line is intriguing, the last line is memorable, and in between, the items listed are fascinating and give insight into the characters and their relationship.
What did you think of Anita’s choices? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments - have you found a new favourite piece? Did you try out one of Anita’s brilliant prompts?
Next month’s selection will be chosen by Laura Besley and will be appearing (fingers crossed) on the 21st November.
Opportunities to work with Matt
Write Beyond the Lightbulb
I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be starting up my #WriteBeyondTheLightbulb courses again in 2024:
Colourful Characters (8th-21st January 2024): BOOK NOW!
Glorious Words (5th-18th February 2024): BOOK NOW!
Go With The Flow (4th-17th March 2024): ***NEW COURSE!!!***
Editing for Novels, Novellas and Novellas-in-Flash
Working on a longer project? I know from writing my own novel how invaluable it can be to get input on your work-in-progress to help you move it along to the next level. I offer a variety of editorial services including:
First Steps Review: feedback on your outline plot and first 10,000 words (for writers who are just getting going with their first draft)
Structural Review: feedback on the narrative, structure, characters and emotional journey (for writers who have completed their first draft)
Submission Review: feedback on your cover letter, synopsis and first 10,000 words (for writers who are preparing to submit to agents)
https://www.mattkendrick.co.uk/novel-editing
Short-Fiction Editing
Want an expert eye on a short story or flash fiction you are currently working on? Are you struggling to get to the heart of the story? Does the writing need a final polish at sentence level? I offer a variety of editorial services for short fiction from looking at the overall structure to approaching your writing with a magnifying glass.
Thanks for such a brilliant selection. I liked - and learned a lot - from all of them. A particular shout-out to Lu Han for several memorable phrases I jotted down in envy: "friendship death by geography", ".. which of our memories to frame and hang in the hallways of our mind", and "before cellphones force-fed us like a relentless placenta". David X Lewis