Nothing Short Of: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story

Gems, shards, bon bons, quickies, nuggets, tickles, or even pinpricks. Each 100 Word Story is its own kind of special. NOTHING SHORT OF presents the best of 100WordStory.org, the leader in short-short fiction and a popular go-to for great reading.In these very short stories, every word, every detail, every moment matters. And the things left out, the spaces around the stories, are just as intense. What can a hundred words do? They can send chills, they can bring you to tears, they can take your breath away. In charged, sometimes racy encounters -- from wild, messy breakups to a disgruntled clown dinner to quiet revelations over folded laundry -- these 100-word stories take us to lightning moments when everything is at stake.

Grant Faulkner is the executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. His essays on creative writing have appeared in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, and Writer’s Digest, and his stories have appeared in dozens of literary journals, including The Southwest Review, The Los Angeles Review, Five Points, and Tin House online. He recently published a collection of 100-word stories, Fissures, and a book of essays on creativity, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Prompts to Boost Your Creative Mojo.

Lynn Mundell is the co-founder of 100 Word Story. She has worked as a professional writer and editor for 30 years. Her poetry, creative nonfiction, and short stories have appeared in literary journals including The Sun, Superstition Review, Eclectica, Tin House online, Portland Review, and Five Points, and have been published in the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, and Australia. She is most recently a contributor to the W.W. Norton anthology New Microfiction: Exceptionally Short Stories.

Beret Olsen is a writer, photographer, and the photo editor for 100 Word Story. Her art, essays, and fiction have been published in a variety of places including: First Class Lit, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, and her blog, Bad Parenting 101. A longtime educator, Beret also writes grants to help low-income, first-generation college students get into, through, and beyond college.