Melissa Bowers

Forget growing the child or birthing the child or feeding the child. A parent's true power is the way we can locate, deep within our souls, the same enthusiastic inflection on the 97,013,873rd read-through of a board book as the 97,013,872nd

Oh wow. Thank you, Megan🩶

Thank you so much for sharing this one, Pat!

Amy!! Huge congratulations!🎉

Thank you, Myna!

That is so kind, Emily! Thank you!

Thank you, friend!

Thank you, Kathy! So grateful for your brilliant workshop where this one started!🩵🪺

Dan! Thank you so much for reading.🩵 I really appreciate it!

Thank you, Ex!🩵

Thank you! It is surreal to be in your company! I remember reading and loving your flashes.

Thank you!

Truly stunned to have won the Copper Nickel Editors' Prize in Prose. It was already such an honor to be published—this feels a bit like a dream! THANK YOU to Teague Bohlen, Wayne Miller, and everyone at Copper Nickel! What an incredible experience.
copper-nickel.org/from-the-ash...

when my third grader is with his friends and they run out of stuff to talk about, one of them will announce "AWKWARD SILENCE" and then they all just sit there basking in it

Yay Patricia!🎉

Thank you so much for reading!🩵

Thank you so much for sharing this, Pat!

I also wanted to practice an exercise in empathy, a reminder that we don’t truly know the hardships of another. I hope that comes through.🩶

Thank you @kimmagowan.bsky.social for loving this not-quite-flash piece! So grateful to you for championing it, and happy to be a part of this beautiful issue.

Two Celias Cross Paths Melissa Bowers   1. When the Cheerios spill all over the sidewalk, Celia thinks of being pregnant, how less than a year ago she wouldn’t have been able to bend down to pick them up. She’s only…

Thrilled to be in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social this month!

I wanted to write a story that trick-mirrors itself from beginning to end and caves in on itself in the middle—something sort of V-shaped.

pitheadchapel.com/two-celias-c...

Huge thanks to Teague Bohlen for pulling this flash piece from your slush, and for your insightful edits that helped unearth exactly what the story was trying to say.

Thanks, also, to @kathyfish.bsky.social. It will be a surprise to no one that this hatched in one of your brilliant workshops.🪹🪺🩶

From the moment I started subbing short fiction, Copper Nickel has been at the very top of my Wildly Unattainable Dream Journal list.

This came in the mail today.

I treasure it so much. And that cool, cleverly blended story on the back cover with a line from each piece🥹

Oh wow, Tommy, how cool! Congratulations!

Thank you, Christine!💖

Great to see you, too!

Thank you so much!💖

Hi! I found rep with a novel, so I’m not much help with short story collections, I fear. I assume the query process is roughly the same, but trickier, as there are likely fewer agent options? I hope you find the perfect fit!

Ah, thank you for reading, Jonathan! And so nice to see you!

Thank you so much, Tommy!

What Lies in Sapient Lake | Melissa Bowers NMW Fear Award Melissa Bowers of Gilroy, California for “What Lies in Sapient Lake”

Still stumbling my way through the sky so hopefully someone sees this, but I’m excited to tiptoe back into the flash world! Big thanks to NMW for selecting this as a winner of their “Fear” award, and to @tommydeanwriter.bsky.social for the inspiring prompt.

newmillenniumwritings.org/what-lies-in...

You too! I feel like I am already very scarce🤦🏻‍♀️, but trying!