A new novel by Alec Clayton I’m not writing this. I’m screaming it. But only inside my mind. It’s all in my head. You are in my head. Left completely paralyzed and unable to talk after a stroke, newspaperman Willie Ray Rivers recalls his fight for justice in the little town of Hub City, Mississippi; … Read more
I have written all my life beginning as an 8-year-old sitting on a park bench in New York City scribbling tales of Pegasus and flying through the sky and, over the past 10 years, writing a weekly 5-minute Postcard from Paradise – a radio spot for our local NPR station, but it wasn’t until Alec … Read more
In these two Mud Flat Press events, each writer will have a short time to talk, and then there will be time for comments and questions from participants. There are thirty-one stories by nineteen writers in our new anthology Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction) with stories of love and of war, sci-fi tales, stories of … Read more
When Gabi and Alec invited me to submit something for their upcoming anthology, I thought it was a great opportunity, but the timing was awful. During that month, I was finishing a major draft of my first novel and had carpal tunnel surgery on my wrists. I really wasn’t sure I’d be able to participate. … Read more
For the second time, and for the second author, the book came to a point where inspiration trailed off. Where to turn? Morris and I had become good friends. We shared a number of interests. Both of us had been teachers. (Morris was a retired UCLA professor of psychology. I had taught grades 9-12, and … Read more
Mud Flat Press co-owner Alec Clayton has two short stories and a short novel excerpt in Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction). Here’s Alec musing on the writing of these stories: I didn’t plan it this way, but all three of these stories are about death, yet they are not without a lot of laughs. The … Read more
by Marica Bernstein Special to the Webster Progress Times | 07-20-2022 In the two-volume classic “A History of Mississippi,” James Robert “Jim” Peery (1900-54) is listed alongside William Faulkner, Richard Wright and others as a Mississippi author who has “proven that even poor folk can be shown with understanding and appreciation for what their lives … Read more
Keith Eisner’s story “Shrine” previously appeared in the 2018 Big Muddy magazine as the winner of that magazine’s Short Story Contest, sponsored by Southeast Missouri State University. His story “Blue Dot,” published in Salamander, appeared in the 2017 O. Henry Prize Story anthology. Both are reprinted in Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction). Keith writes: How cool is it … Read more
When we published Mississippi Arts & Letters way back in the 1980s, Jes Simmons contributed poems and other writing, and many years later we reconnected on Facebook and by email. Jes was one of the first writers we invited to submit to Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction). She responded with the short story “At Dairy … Read more