Necessary fictions of 2009
With “Necessary” right there in our name, it’s no surprise we think of stories as a way to make sense of the world, to ask questions and explore ideas and look beyond ourselves. So with the “best of” lists come and gone, we asked our contributors something different about the past year:
What happened in 2009 (or in what we’ve seen of 2010) that sparked your curiosity? Did “Balloon Boy” seem like a metaphor waiting to happen, or did the economic collapse send you grasping for a way to respond? Maybe the Hadron Super Collider kept you up at night, waiting to vanish into a black hole. Or perhaps you can’t stop thinking about the deer in Europe who still won’t cross the old Iron Curtain twenty years after the fences came down. Whatever it was, we want to know what caught your attention and made you feel the need for a story (whether you actually wrote it or not).
We look forward to sharing their answers, and if you’d like to share your response — whether we’ve published your fiction or not — please feel free to send it to editor@necessaryfiction.com.
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ARTIFACT 16: The Life Within, by Robert Kloss
Robert Kloss kicks off our excavation today with “The Life Within:” Ah, the hiss and seethe of man, of man no longer man, of man enclosed in brass and gold and steel. This man who will not rot, nor sag nor droop nor gray. How we cut him open and found the life within…
Necessary News
A big thanks to Matt Briggs as his month in residence here at NF comes to a close.
Our September 2010 Writer In Residence will be Amber Sparks, and we’re sure it will be an historic event.
The Zoo, a Going: (The Tropic House) is a new chapbook by JA Tyler, available from sunnyoutside.
99 Problems, a book of essays on running and life by Ben Tanzer, is available from CCCLap.
Congratulations to Ethel Rohan, whose book Cut Through The Bone is forthcoming from Dark Sky Books.


