Kathy Fish @kathyfish Twitter profile

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Kathy Fish

4 months

Finally, I can share my good news! I've been chosen as a writer in residence at Kerouac House in Orlando, FL for January and February of next year! I will use the dedicated space and time to work on my collection in progress. So honored & grateful. 💙

Writers Archive - The Kerouac Project

www.kerouacproject.org

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 months

My brother, Tim, died last night. He was only 66 years old. He left behind an absolutely beautiful family and was a loving, kind, smart, and funny human being. We are heartbroken. 💔

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

@Jasmine_blu @savbrads I love her. I have long hair and a (short haired) woman once told me that HER HUSBAND doesn't believe women my age should have long hair. Idgaf.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Writers I urge you not to get too discouraged by not getting into things, not being shortlisted, not winning the award, etc. Often really stellar work & really stellar writers fly under the radar. Don't make too much of any of it besides doing the work & making beautiful things.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Welp, it's official. Yesterday I signed the contract. Friends, I have a new story coming out in the July issue of long-time dream journal PLOUGHSHARES and I am so happy and grateful and stunned. 🙏

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Honestly hear this more from women writers than men: "Apologies for my shameless self-promotion." Oh please, please, please stop saying that. This is your art. The world needs it. Share it widely and unabashedly. Only the haters will mind & who cares about them anyway?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

You know what? I'm tired of quaking in fear over a mob of violent, delusional, childish bullies. I'm so happy we've won back the White House. I'm going to let myself feel some joy and relief. #Inauguration2021 🥂🇺🇸

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Ya'll went to AWP, but I got my first grandchild this morning. Lucia Elena, born 6 weeks early in the wee hours, surrounded by the NICU team at Johns Hopkins. Baby and parents are doing great. Grandparents are absolutely in love and over the moon. 🥰🥰🥰🥰

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Well, I turned 60 today, friends. Glad to still be here.🧓🥂

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels for me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it also feel that way for you?” ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Could use all the love & support today, friends, as we are saying goodbye to our sweet Allie. She's been a good friend & my first and only dog & I will miss her very much.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

There's something I need to get off my chest this morning: I'm actually not happy for the success of that person for whom I took the time to write a very nice blurb when I was super busy and they never thanked me for it. Whew! Okay, that was cathartic! Thanks for listening.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

💗Friends, I get to hug my firstborn today for the first time since Christmas, 2019. 💗

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

I tell you, some of my most well-received stories are the ones I very nearly abandoned, where almost always I had taken a creative risk. If I have any advice at all, writer friends, it's to send out the stories that scare you a little.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

You guys, I just had a story accepted at Swamp Pink (formerly Crazyhorse)! A dream pub! I'm so excited!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

The other night, a student asked, "What's going to happen in the next two weeks," and I thought of all this world is going through, political strife, climate change, etc. and I shook my head and said, "Oh man, who knows." He looked so confused, then said, "I mean IN THIS CLASS."

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

Omg, I'm stunned! Just found out I've been awarded a 2020 @Ragdale Residency. I am OVER THE MOON and so very honored and grateful. 🙏

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

People who don’t write it have opinions about flash fiction and I feel moved to say (again) that flash fiction is its own unique and arresting literary form, worthy as any other to be studied and taught and read.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

During this pandemic, I've been sort of quietly writing a series of very short essays on writing very short stories and adding them to my guidebook in progress. Is this something you all would be interested in?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

I'm sick full of sadness & RAGE. I wrote this after the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017. There've been hundreds of mass shootings in the U.S. since then. Dedicating this to the 14 children & the teacher gunned down in their school today in Uvalde, Texas. 💔 @JellyfishReview

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

11 months

The rejection letter erasures feel like old Twitter and that makes me happy.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

As a late bloomer, mother of four, post-menopausal, no MFA writer, I'm as uncool as they get. I've never done anything like this before and it's been a thrill. Final week at Ragdale thru my frosty window this morning. Off to write into this perfect silence.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Hey, I'm 62 years young today and full of gratitude. This baby me surrounded by three of my seven brothers. 💖

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Writers, man, no matter what level you have achieved, you can always, always find ways to send the elevator back down. Don't get so comfortable with where you are that you forget that someone once did this for you. Pay it forward.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

My oldest daughter in her new classroom soon to begin her new job as a high school English teacher. ♥️

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 years

My sweet dog was diagnosed a couple days ago with a failing heart. Now, her wish is my command...She wants me to sit out on the porch with her on a cold day, by God, that's what we're gonna do.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Good morning! It's my birthday! I'm 58 today, but I feel more like 54 1/2. 😎

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

29 days

Happy Birthday to me! I'm grateful to still be here.🎈 This is 64...

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Friends, I FINALLY turned in edits for a story that's forthcoming in a journal I never in my wildest dreams believed would feature my work. My standard reaction when great things that come my way is...freezing into stunned inaction? What a weirdo I am.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

I am so deeply honored by this. Thank you, editors James Thomas, @SherrieFlick & John Dufresne for choosing my story for the upcoming Flash Fiction America to be published by @wwnorton

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

You guys, my wee granddaughter finally got to leave the hospital yesterday. I've been here at my daughter's visiting since she was born three weeks ago. Just heard a tiny cry coming from upstairs. A little one lives here now and it's the sweetest, loveliest thing.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

My mom died thirty years ago today. Here she is with my firstborn. I've now lived more years without her than with her. I didn't start writing until a decade after she had passed. An avid reader, I think she would have been excited that I became a writer. I miss her very much. ❤️

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

It's a good sign if you're a little afraid of the story you're writing. If it makes your heart beat a little faster. If you keep stopping yourself. Don't. Keep going. Dig deeper. You are on to something true and resonant and deep.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Hey friends, I'm writing a piece about literary "success" and would love to hear your feelings on it. What does success as a writer mean to you? What do you see as tangible evidence of success? Or intangible? What makes you feel successful, etc. Appreciate your thoughts! 💙

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Cover reveal! I'm over the moon to announce my forthcoming book, Wild Life: Collected Works 2003 - 2018. It's a new edition of my 2011 collection, with stories from previous collections & new stories. With abundant thanks to Randall Brown at Matter Press.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

I've never worn purple before. What do you think?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 years

Do you fulfill the requirements for success as a writer? I'm neither MFA nor NYC. I'm a post-menopausal mother of four who didn't publish anything until I was 40 years old, so I virtually have nothing going for me but my own ability. Bah!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Friends, I'm so honored to learn that "Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild" has been selected for Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, edited by Sheila Heti. Many thanks to @CJatJellyfish & @JellyfishReview

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

“Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.” ~Grace Paley

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

10 months

I'm SO STOKED that my story, "The Gateway," has been nominated for BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY! Thank you, Craft Literary editors! 💙

The Gateway by Kathy Fish - CRAFT

John and Lara’s daughter had up and married a perfect stranger. She’d met the fellow at a gallery opening only two weeks before. The nuptials had taken place in a courthouse. On the phone Liza told...

www.craftliterary.com

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Some days are an A+. My younger son turned 27. 🎂I had a great time teaching ghost stories for @FlashFicFest . 👻We planted a flower garden in the backyard 🌺🌻🌹🌷🌼AND I found out my daughter & her husband are having a baby GIRL in April. I'm going to be a grandma! 💖💖💖

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

I've written flash for 24 years, taught it for 8, been widely published, etc., but I'm disinclined to make big pronouncements on social about what you should & shouldn't do with the form. Writers are hungry for tips, though! Mine is: It's flash. Rebel. Invent. Do what you love.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

If you too wake up in a cold sweat worried that one offhand comment you made may have hurt/offended someone you care about then hi, friend, we are kindred.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Person who's never written anything in their life: Yeah, I'd write a novel if I just had the time. Person who's been a writer for 20 years: Writing is so f*****g hard!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 months

First acceptance of 2024! A really nice one! I am INTENSELY relieved and so happy. #whew

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Sweet news that I have a new grand-nephew and his middle name is after my brother who died a few years ago and I'm a puddle of tears and oh boy did this family of mine need some happy news. 💗

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

So my son who's been working long hours at the grocery store all through the pandemic? Told me he donated every dime of his stimulus check to a local food bank. 💗

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 months

Every so often I feel like standing up and shouting to the rest of the literary community: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, READ FLASH FICTION. IT FUCKING SLAYS.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

W. W. Norton’s FLASH FICTION AMERICA is out in Feb., 2023. Here I am on the first page of the T of C in stellar company. I’m deeply honored & grateful. Thanks to ⁦ @AimeeBender ⁩ & Ploughshares ⁦ @pshares ⁩ who first published my story, eds. ⁦ @SherrieFlick ⁩ et Al.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Would love your honest thoughts on this: My work-in-progress, The Art of Flash Fiction, is a hybrid of flash memoir + reflections on the form + craft pieces + writing prompts. As is my way, I started writing it without considering if it were even publishable. What do you think?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

Friends, I'm on a mission. Who are some writers whose work blows you away and you feel deserve a wider audience? I'd love to find ways to use the platform of my newsletter to boost and elevate talented, unsung, under-the-radar writers we may not all have read, but ought to! 💙

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Acceptance tweet! I have a story forthcoming in amazing @Wigleaf ! I'm thrilled to pieces! 🌟

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

It occurred to me that there are two basic styles of teaching: One where the teacher shows you how smart he or she is and the other, where the teachers show you how smart *you* are.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

10 months

Yes, be a good literary citizen. Be supportive and generous and kind. Work hard. Reach out. Connect. But if you need help, please ask for it. If you need rest, please take it. Be good to yourself, first. You don't have to be perfect to be valued and cared for and enough.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Made it to Iceland (yay!) and it’s stunning!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

“Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild” in The Norton Reader, 15th Edition

“Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild” in The Norton Reader, 15th Edition - Kathy Fish

I’m very proud to announce that my flash/essay/hybrid piece, “Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild” is featured in the newest edition of The Norton Reader released today. I find myself in astoni...

kathy-fish.com

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Feedback I would give for lots of stories is: Please, please, please let the reader in more. Let us feel and engage with the sadness or strangeness or tension or anger or desire of your characters. It is part of the joy of reading. Don't deny us that.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 months

I say this all the time, but it bears repeating: Please don't send your unedited first drafts out to the world. The world can wait. The world wants you to wait! Unfortunately, someone may publish it, and that mess will be associated with your name forever.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

The last stories I published were in April/May. Two stories. I have one coming out in December. A lot of you publish more stories in a month than I do in a year. I'm trying not to compare myself to others. I'm trying very hard to shush the little voice whispering "failure."

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Good light in my writing room this morning. Felt cute. Might delete later.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Go ahead and retweet the praise you get for your work. I, for one, would like to see it. It might make a few snotty people roll their eyes but who cares about snotty people?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

Friends, I'd be very pleased if you'd read my newest story, "Procession," out now at Swamp Pink (formerly Crazyhorse). I drafted this story in a workshop with brilliant writer & teacher, Sabrina Orah Mark @OrahMark . 🙏 @swamp_pink

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Last time I tweeted a picture of myself a complete stranger told me I looked like a sphinx. 🙁Anyway, hi! Felt cute, might delete later. See you soon, 3 in 90 writers!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 months

Hey, if flash fiction is the form you primarily write in, there aren't very many "elite" journals that want our work anyway. It's their loss! Keep sending your tiny, artful, mind-bending, risk-taking stories to the brilliant journals that are cool enough to appreciate them. 💙

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Was feeling blue so I bought myself a dress and made a hair appointment at the new salon near me called-- and I kid you not: Curl Up & Dye.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

My Editors' Prize winning story. Would love for you to give it a read. Thanks so much, @coppernickel

Copper Nickel

@coppernickel

4 years

Check out @kathyfish 's "Bear Walks into a Bar," winner of an Editors' Prize in Prose for CN issue 31&2!—

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

I finally got an appointment! Getting my first dose of the Moderna vaccine on the 17th. Whew!

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Heartbreaking family news yesterday, then more today, and friends, I am reeling.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Let's see if we can publish more diverse voices in flash fiction. Let's see if we can get more women and POC curating and heading up flash fiction anthologies. Let's get flash fiction, especially flash that's published online, more recognition at the highest levels.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

I met an editor who, upon learning I write flash fiction, informed me that *her journal didn't publish flash fiction (I hadn't asked!) but she assured me there were probably lots of good magazines that published flash. She didn't pat me on the head but it sure felt like she had.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

2 years

Word has it this new @wwnorton anthology of flash, FLASH FICTION AMERICA is hitting mailboxes on Valentine's Day. 💘 I'm proud to be included in its pages. A terrific read of flash fiction fans or those interested in the form. An invaluable resource for creative writing teachers.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Do your own thing and be proud and happy with what you do. Other artists are not your enemy or your competition. There is ample room for all. Work hard, try interesting things, support your fellow writers and have a blast. 💖

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

And so, today, I begin anew, turn over a new leaf, get my shit together, make a plan, set goals, manifest my desires, resolve to do better for the 8,789th time in my 60 years on the planet.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Just putting it out there: I have no qualms about drinking champagne before noon. I'll do it for America.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Off I go but I leave you with this: Make the cool things. Now. Try stuff you don't think you're ready for. Write down the idea. Send the email. Ask the favor. There's not one person alive with your vision, perspective, experience. Use it.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

Okay, this is kind of funny. I have had a couple of male writers I don't know reach out to me recently to tell me about their writing, ask for advice, and could I read their work, etc. Both also added, "I confess I've never read anything by you." 😂

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

I'm totally counting this as a personal response to a submission withdrawal from the New Yorker. This is their shy way of asking me to submit to them again, I just know it.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

I'm going to do work until noon, then take the rest of the day off to celebrate my BIRTHDAY! (it's actually tomorrow, but celebrating today). I'm turning 59, ya'll! 🎂🍷🎂🍷

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

I'm honored to announce that my 20 year streak of being nominated for Pushcarts and not receiving one remains UNBROKEN. 🌟🏆✨😂

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 years

So happy and honored that Aimee Bender chose "Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild" for @BestSmFictions 2018! Means so much to me. And thanks to @JellyfishReview for publishing it. 💖

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 months

I'm not a big deal writer by any stretch, and I don't care, but today someone told me what learning from me meant to them and honestly, if I never publish another story, this will be enough, friends. I'm so honored and moved. 💙

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Was asked in an interview yesterday what one should read to become a better writer. I think they were after craft books, but I said anything that delights and compels you, makes you a more interesting person, and deepens your understanding & empathy for your fellow human beings.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Just looked up from my notebook…

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

I'm extremely touched and honored by this. Thanks so much to all the editors and congratulations to the other prizewinners. @coppernickel is a dream publication for me so I'm doubly honored by this recognition. 🙏

Copper Nickel

@coppernickel

4 years

Congratulations to the Editors' Prize winners for issue 31&2, as determined by a full vote of our staff readers and interns: @MikhailBazharov , @SquatchDonovan , @kathyfish , and @aforster26 ! (All on twitter!)

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

1 year

I'm staying. At least for now. I stubbornly refuse to give Leon exactly what he wants. A mass exodus of liberal writers, artists, and thinkers.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

A teacher just wrote to say his students have been discussing my Collective Nouns piece & they'd come up with their own: A chuckle of comedians A sponge of students A correction of editors A knowledge of teachers A plague of Karens A cackle of witches A field of farmers

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

@apbenven @sarasidnerCNN Juxtapose this with the smug, mocking refusal of GOP lawmakers to simply put on a damned mask while sheltering with their colleagues during the violent insurrection of the Capitol.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

I have two new stories coming out tomorrow, at different journals, and I'm proud of them both and I really hope you like them. (*hyperventilates)

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Hi friends, I'm popping in to say hi 💙and show you the view out my writing room window this afternoon. ❄️❄️❄️

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

9 months

This is me, exactly.

Amanda Fortini

@amandafortini

9 months

Ann Patchett on not writing every day.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

11 months

I have a new story up now at @nw_review Huge thanks to @saralippmann & @OrahMark in whose workshops I began drafting this piece and thanks also to editor @DawnRaffel for including my work.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

7 years

I just got my fourth Pushcart nomination. What is happening?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

My oldest daughter texted me last night to tell me that she'd finished her 97K novel. I asked her to text me the last sentence. It's freaking divine and I'm so proud and happy for her. 😊

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

3 years

Ok, this is the story I've been nervous about. Didn't know it was out yet. Thank you, thank you, @JoyBaglio and huge thanks to @AimeeBender for belief in my work & dream publication forever, Ploughshares! @pshares 🙏

Joy Deva Baglio

@JoyBaglio

3 years

Wowza, @kathyfish story in the new @pshares , edited by @AimeeBender , is a complete showstopper. Every sentence gave me goosebumps. And that last line! I will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

Journal editors who go out of their way to boost new publications of past contributors deserve a standing ovation as far as I’m concerned. I’m so grateful for your support. 💖

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

6 years

My brother, Tom, died four years ago today. That's him holding me on his lap. I miss him very much.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

5 years

Hey, just got an acceptance from Washington Square Review @on_squ So happy! Great way to start the week.

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Whoosh. Honored that my piece is included in "Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writer's Guide & Anthology" (forthcoming from Bloomsbury) with these incredible writers:

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

4 years

Are you, like me, a person who tends to berate herself for not doing enough, not achieving enough? I've published very few stories so far this year, (3 + 1 forthcoming), but here's the thing: I'm proud of each and every one of them. So that's something, right?

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Kathy Fish

@kathyfish

8 months

I don't feel like I'm good at AWP! I so admire those of you who seemed to have chatted with everyone, took pictures of every encounter, went to all the panels & readings, and never once ate a sad bag of leftover potato chips in your hotel room, alone. You are my heroes. 🏆

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