Here is the sixth response to my influences post. The respondent is Barry Graham. He chose Christopher Kennedy’s Trouble with the Machine.

Prompts:

1) Pick one of the pieces you chose and describe the thing about it that seems particularly innovative about it.

2) Tell me what changed about your writing because of that innovation.

Answers after the jump:

1. I remember getting a copy of this book from Jeff Parker when I was in grad school. It was my first experience with very short flash fictions, 200 words or less, together in one collection. His precision is sharp enough to slice through your skin. Every word seems chosen so purposefully, methodically, every word capable of eliciting some sort of physical and/or emotional response.

2. At the time I had been writing and studying poetry for close to ten years and this collection sort of acted as a bridge into flash fiction and eventually longer fiction. When I went into Parker’s office and asked him if he had something I could read, to this day I’m not sure if he knew exactly what he was doing in giving me the book, or if he had shit to do and was just trying to get me out of his office.

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