Congratulations to Mr. Dan Lundin of South Pasadena, CA. He done just won hisself a free Kindle Touch from his friends at [PANK]! On its way, Mr. Lundin. Enjoy!

For the last few months I read submissions for this special Stamp Stories edition of [PANK], and with each new submission, the realization came louder: writing stories in 50 words or less is not about condensing beginning, middle, and end into an amuse-bouche. It is not about taking a larger body of work and cutting until a smaller frame emerges. Writing Stamp Stories is about finding the heart in words.

Years ago Mud Luscious Press began our Stamp Stories venture, which, in short, was an attempt to connect authors and presses from around the widest indie lit swath by printing complete texts on postage stamp-sized cardstock and freely distributing them to one and all. Each new press that distributed Stamp Stories also sent us new authors to solicit, until, in the end, we connected forty presses and one-hundred stories, all of which are now collected in the newly released [ C. ] An MLP Stamp Stories Anthology.

So when I set to reading Stamp Story submissions for [PANK], I was looking for, and found, what I had sought previously in the one-hundred texts of [ C. ], stories willing to expose their hearts. Lindsay Stern, xTx, Ben Mirov, Shane Jones—all of the authors whose work made it into this final tiny-sized version of [PANK] understand the importance of flaying open their lines, holding ribcage and muscle apart to reveal the bleating within. They didn’t attempt to shrink or shortly recreate the heart, they simply showed it. What happens in all of these pieces is the need to tell the heart of the story, only the most crucial elements with the most indefatigable words, in the tightest of all spaces. In these texts, we are allowed to read the way it all works, underneath the underneath, where the heart is. In these texts, magic lies. –J.A. Tyler

Dear Concerned Citizen:

We at Words With Friends received your letter regarding our—as you put it—“uncanny similarities to the board game Scrabble.” Believe it or not, you aren’t the first person to bring this to our attention. In fact, we have mounds of letters in our office proclaiming such a ridiculous notion. The reason we’re telling you this is so that you don’t think you’re something special, because you’re not. You’re just like all of us, and you’re going to die some day.

Sorry. Maybe we went too far there. Although it’s true that you will die, as you are not immortal, unlike the game Words With Friends, which will always be around. How does that make you feel?

The fact is, Words With Friends is quite different from Scrabble, and we’d like to take this opportunity to point out those differences. Let’s start with four of the most obvious differences:

1) The name of our game. Words With Friends. Scrabble. Are those names remotely similar? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. But you can bet the guys at Scrabble are kicking themselves for not coming up with the name “Words With Friends” because our name kicks ass. I mean, Words with Friends. Who doesn’t want to play a word game with friends? Who are you playing Scrabble with? Probably not friends. Probably pedophiles.

2) In Scrabble, when you shake that wooden thing that holds your letters (how quaint!), does it scramble them for you? No. In fact, it just makes a mess. Tiles everywhere. But in Words With Friends, the letters scramble. Does this difference seem trivial? I don’t know, is your mom trivial?

3) There is a slight color difference in our bonus squares on the game board. Little known fact: this color difference was unintentional and actually a mistake on the part of our designers. Nevertheless, the difference is there and our designers have been fired.

4) Finally, we’d like to reiterate the difference between the names of the games. Big difference there.

Again, these are just some of the more obvious differences. There are actually plenty of other differences between our games. For instance, did you know we actually came up with the idea behind our word game before Scrabble did? It’s true. Exactly one second before they did. Also, Words With Friends is cool and Scrabble juggles the nuts of a dead raccoon. Anyone who thinks differently is wrong and has a lower I.Q. than us. (By the way, reverse the letters I and Q to make the word Qi, which comes in handy when you’re stuck with a Q and don’t have a U; you’re welcome.)

At this point, you’re probably feeling pretty stupid for writing your letter. Well, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Like I said, we have mounds of letters like yours over here, which only proves that you’re not special and that you are, indeed, going to die someday.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Words With Friends

Joseph Quintela has a story as program at Housefire.

In the November issue of Anti, a poem by Wendy Xu.

You can listen to a story by Todd McKie in the current issue of LITRO.

At Everyday Genius, David Peak and JA Tyler. They are followed by Jamie Iredell and more Andrew Borgstrom.

Ethel Rohan’s Tiger’s Got Teeth is up now at Joyland. She also has a very short story, How We Work, in the Irish Times.

Barrelhouse is featuring an all poetry issue where you will find work by Alexis Orgera and Sandra Simonds.

A new installment of Sara Lippmann’s Read it Loud is up at Used Furniture Review.

Lauren Becker has very short fiction in Wigleaf.

Mensah Demary has another thoughtful essay on the writing life in Hippocampus Magazine.

Last chance! Spend $10+ at the [PANK] Store by the close of today and you’ll be entered to win a free Kindle Touch. And the odds ain’t bad, maybe 1 in 50 last we counted. Get on it! Get on it! Get. Up. On. It.

As PANK grows, so does our gratitude for the very talented writers who are generous enough to allow us to publish their words and the equally generous readers who support PANK by reading the magazine online each month, subscribing to the print issue, and buying our books as well as helping us spread the good word. We cannot thank you enough. We are also grateful for our staff who volunteer their passion and time to the magazine. At the top of that list is Brad Green for whom the title of assistant editor is woefully inadequate. Brad spearheads the production end of assembling our online issues now and also reads submissions and sometimes we have fun e-mail exchanges. His attention to detail, his patience, and work ethic are just amazing and it’s a pleasure working with him. We also have Abby Koski who handles publicity and other such duties and Jason Sommer who did the layout for PANK 6 as assistant editors. Our contributing editors J. Bradley (interviews) and Amye Archer (reviews), are the heart of our blog content. J. Bradley’s interviews are certainly different but we always know we will never be bored while reading his questions or the answers writers come up with. Amye makes sure we know about all kinds of interesting books and soon will be starting a series of reviews of older titles that deserve some critical attention. We would be remiss if we neglected to mention that Amye was preceded by the amazing Kirsty Logan who was our first reviews contributing editor and always made sure we had thoughtful, engaging reviews on the blog. Kirsty has moved on to other opportunities but she remains one of our favorite people. Alicia Kennedy copyedits each print issue and always has our back. Alyssa Friske, our intern, is the one who makes sure you get the PANK merch you order. Last but certainly not least, we have a small but trusted group of readers who help us manage the submission queue as the first line of editorial defense–Sara Crowley, Robb Todd, Joe Stracci, Court Merrigan, Diana Salier, Mairead Case, Eric Shonkwiler, Lam Pham, Hedy Zimra and our newest additions Chris Emslie, JSA Lowe, Grace Hobbs and Eirann Lorsung. For you all, we give thanks!

Andrew Roe has a great story up at Good Men Project.

In fancy news, Patricia Lockwood has a poem in a little magazine called The New Yorker.

At The Rumpus, Alana Noel Voth tells us where she writes and Daniel Nester has an equally powerful essay about Freddie Mercury.

Sandra Simonds has two poems in The Awl.

Used Furniture Review features Notes From a Burning Underground Part II by Jonathan Callahan. You will also find work from Jessica Hollander and Joshua Helms.

The Chicago Reader, by way of Jamie Yates, gives us a great shout out! Thank you, muchly!

The Stamp Stories Anthology is now available from Mud Luscious, for only $10 and features many PANK contributors including James Tadd Adcox, Lauren Becker, Matt Bell, Jesse Bradley, Melissa Broder, Blake Butler,  Jimmy Chen, Kathy Fish, Scott Garson, Molly Gaudry,  Barry Graham, Lily Hoang, Jamie Iredell, A D Jameson, Jac Jemc, Shane Jones, M. Kitchell, Matthew Lippman, Sean Lovelace, Riley Michael Parker, David Peak,  Adam Peterson, Ryan Ridge, Joseph Riippi, Ethel Rohan, Lydia Ship, Matthew Simmons, Amber Sparks, Deb Olin Unferth, William Walsh, and Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé among others.

Len Kuntz has two pieces in A-Minor.

Up at Everyday Genius, Rachel Levy, M. Kitchell, and Andrew Borgstrom.

Three poems by Bill Yarrow are featured at Fwriction Review.

New DOGZPLOT, new xTx and Erin Fitzgerald.

Courtney Maum has a story in Anderbo.

Don’t forget! Spend $10 or more in the PANK store and be automatically entered into a drawing to receive a free Amazon Kindle. This promotion runs through the end of November!

The November issue of PANK will astound and delight you with writing by Jeanann Verlee, Barrett Bowlin, Andrea O’Rourke, Mike Rosenthal, Grace Hobbs, Eric Ellingsen, Peter Kispert, Keren Veisblatt, Riley Michael Parker, Sarah Malone, Mary-Jane Newton, Jennifer A. Howard, Matthew Mogavero, Sam Martone, Susan Lago, Sara Gerot, Camonghne Felix, Schuyler Dickson, Jessie Damiani, Christopher Citro, Callie Collins, Rachel Bunting and Lisa Bellamy.

You will find Faith Gardner in the new issue of Fender Stitch.

There is new work in The Collagist including a stunning poem by Ocean Vuong, and equally fine writing by Matthew Simmons, Gabriel Welsch, Christian Tebordo, and Ryan Ridge.

Ani Smith edited this week’s NOO Weekly with Andrew Borgstrom (1, 2, 3), Kuzhali Manickavel, and Melissa Goodrich. You will also find work from Andrew in Everyday Genius where he is joined by David Peak.

The new issue of Corium features Ravi Mangla, Gary Sheppard, and others.

Lauren Becker has an essay up at Nervous Breakdown.

The Reprint 5 has writing by Aubrey Hirsch who composed the introduction, Len Kuntz, Joshua Kleinberg,Corey Zeller, and more.

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz has five marvelous poems at Used Furniture Review.

At Titular, Ryan Bradley writes a little something about Cheers.