Microviews Vol. 40: Who Likes Short Shorts?

Sick of everyone whinging about the end of publishing as we know it? Well then small Aussie press, Finlay Lloyd, have the answer for you with their new series , Finlay Lloyd Shorts. This initiative is one of the most exciting things going right now: rising literary stars given sixty pages to create fully realised works. In the first crop there's graphic fiction, novellas and poetry, all presented as beautiful single volumes that will restore your faith in the physical manifestation of the written word. To celebrate their imminent release, I thought I'd devote an entire Microviews post to checking them out.

Anxiety Soup by Tara Mokhtari
I was glad to find a few poems in Tara Mokhtari's collection that even a neanderthal like me can understand and enjoy. Dear Stevie, an homage to a poet's failed suicide and consequent legacy, tugs and stings in equal measure. Poems about cats, awkward post-youth and even more awkward short romances also hit the mark. I suspect if I could actually appreciate poetry I'd be raving.
3 Out Of 5 Rhyming Quintuplets

The Dark Days of Matty Lang by Wayne Strudwick
Matty Lang has survived a car crash that killed is girlfriend and left his best friend in a coma. Struggling with the physical and emotional trauma, he desperately grasps at flashes of memory to piece the events of the night back together. A taut, melancholic narrative that builds to a truly heartbreaking crescendo, The Dark Days of Matty Lang is a mini-marvel.
4 Out Of 5 Fender Benders

Nothing Ventured by Natalia Zajaz
Back at school I had a friend who was always penning clumsily sketched but perfectly observed comics of everyday life. He wasn't a fine artist by any stretch, but it didn't matter. The true art was in the storytelling. Reading Natalia Zajaz's collection of wickedly funny short graphic stories sends me right back to those days. Minus the wedgies, of course.
3.5 Out of 5 Wandering Doodles

Bruno Kramzer by A.S. Patric
Patric follows up last year's stellar collection Las Vegas For Vegans with this deliciously nasty yet warm hearted tale of a professional rogue in crisis. Poor Bruno Kramzer's missions aren't quite going to plan, he's got family problems and his old friends are falling on hard times. As he sets off on one hilarious caper after another, Patric drops ever more unsubtle hints that it is all leading somewhere intriguingly familiar. You'll smile when the realisation hits; turns out Patric is to Kafka what Stoppard was to Shakespeare.
4.5 Out Of 5 Pernicious Pranks

NY by Mandy Ord
A very cool microfiction set to pictures about a pop culture obsessed, awkwardly paranoid graphic novelist finding her feet in the big apple. The charcoal-style etchings are a treat, the story telling tight with flashes of surreal charm. A brief but delightful book.
4 Out Of 5 Falling Apples