Birds Want to Kill You Anna Lea Jancewicz: In 2001, I got divorced and moved to Florida without any real plan. The first job I found was at a bird refuge in the wetlands north of Jacksonville. I was thinking recently that the average person probably hasn’t been attacked by birds that much, and so I started writing this flash. My mother taunted me about killing that dove. She thought it was hilarious.
Mike Doesn’t Seem to Want to Join the Other Dogs Luke Tennis: This piece actually came from a longer story that it wouldn’t fit into. I’ve always loved the sort of narrator who tells not just a story, but who skewers it with some sort of “off” point of view, a voice out of the ordinary, say, the more extreme the better. Jacopo Degl’innocenti: When I finished the reading I imag-
ined a couple trying to approach each other but with insecurity, I drew the leaves falling behind them to make an atmosphere a little sad, like Mike the Dog, who does not want to play with other dogs. I drew the couple faceless, to represent their apathy in the meeting.
Ting’s Tale Jerome Charyn: I never intended to write a cat story. But I fell in love with a cat who had fallen in love with me. She was almost feral in her independence. But my own wildness must have charmed her. And after she died, I wrote a little mourner’s tale for Ting.
Gotham KJ Hannah Greenberg: I was contemplating literal and figurative social transparency. All of us have had moments when we look out windows toward people we don’t know. Likewise, we
Inspirations
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