SmokeLong Quarterly

Demonstrating a sharp sense of language and storytelling in “No Special Need” in the most recent issue of Bennington Review (issue 9), Melissa Beneche also shows us some of what flash fiction can do in “The Thought of Roux.”

Why do you like flash? How is it different from longer form short stories?

I love the kinetic energy of flash. Its urgency, its intimacy, the way it shows a universe (of absurdity, of darkness, of joy) in a moment, or vice versa—how a generation can age in a blink. Of course, short stories can also have and do all these things, but I think flash more eagerly handles them.

I’ve been in workshops where trigger warnings were almost discussed as much as the drafts. Do they serve a purpose in the reading and appreciation of a work? 

That depends on the specific reader, I think. In my workshop experience, trigger warnings were not discussed often. What mattered was the quality of the work. And including trigger warnings does not hurt the work. I sometimes view them as film ratings. For my own mental health, I prefer knowing that a certain film is rated R for violence. However, that rating alone will not inform my appreciation or dislike of said film. At the end, was the film a great work of art?

What writers draw you in as a reader?

Too many to name! I can be drawn in by any good writer. Any writer who has something unique and important and urgent to say and does so in a beautiful way. I do love lyricism, like in the works of Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, and Jesmyn Ward. Most people would not call Jhumpa Lahiri a lyrical writer, yet I love her works, too, being so effortlessly perceptive to each character’s every heartbeat.

Who are you reading now?

I’m finishing Dana Spiotta’s wonderful new novel, Wayward. Just started Mona Awad’s All’s Well, which is both funny and painful. Kaveh Akbar has published his lovely poetry collection Pilgrim Bell. The great poet Rita Dove recently released Playlist for the Apocalypse, and that is next on my list (so excited to read it).

What are you working on now?

More short stories (one—“No Special Need”—appears in the current issue of Bennington Review), and maybe a novel.