Winter Wheat Flash Fiction Battle to the Death Winner

Mid-American Review is thrilled to congratulate Gretchen Troxell as the winner of the 2023 Flash Fiction Battle to the Death! Contest participants were given the prompt “ominous” and only forty minutes to write 750 words or less. Three finalists were chosen to read their flash aloud at the final open mic event of the Winter Wheat Festival of Writing, where the audience chose “Toby” as the winner by overwhelming applause.

“Toby” by Gretchen Troxell

     Toby didn’t believe in spiders. He had never seen one. Never heard one scurrying across the walls. Never felt the satisfying pluck of a daddy long leg’s limp snapping off.

     His therapist wanted to stop wasting their sessions on this. 

     “Does it really matter?” She would ask, unprofessionally.

     “It matters to me,” he would respond, and she would say: “okay, Toby” or “fine, Toby” or “you’re paying for this session, Toby.”

       But Toby could tell even she didn’t believe him. No one did. Or, worse, if they did, they’d call him lucky.

      “It’s like a superpower,” his best friend, Adam said. 

      “Yeah, I’d give anything to never see a spider again,” his former girlfriend, Juliet said. They had broken up from a spider-based argument. Juliet, like his therapist, had grown old and tired of hearing the same old story. “You know what, Toby,” she finally said, “why don’t you just try a little fucking harder to find one then.”

       So, he did. He tried harder.

       Toby went out to his mother’s garden at night and scraped through the soil, burying hard rocks into his rotting nail beds. He slurped through worms and maggots, ants and beetles. His knees became hard-pressed and misshapen. His face darkened by the time the morning sun came up, and still no spiders.

      Toby had taken up five one-hour sessions up with his therapist with this spider talk. On the sixth session, she outlawed the discussion.

       Toby broke into the vents at his old church. He had heard rumors of spiders existing in attics and other dark spaces. He broke his left index finger from pounding the metal too hard, and he put a permanent crick in his back from bending over inside them. Rusty nails scraped across his jeans, creating new gashes of venomous blood. Some bugs came to it. Some reveled in it, cleaning his wounds with microscopic tongues. 

       He tried the cemetery. He cut himself open across the tongue with an old razor he found in the medicine cabinet. A grown man disguised as a vampire came along and called the police, but they didn’t bring any spiders with them. 

      “Why do you want to hurt yourself, Toby?” His therapist asked.

      “I thought the spiders would come.” His therapist shushed him and pointed at a sign over her right shoulder. It said no spider talk allowed. 

       The next night his dad printed out pictures of spiders from Google. “See, they’re real. Now stop this nonsense, now,” he commanded. 

      This pattern will continue until twenty years from now when Toby will get a girlfriend named Sarah. Sarah will be a nice girl whose seen spiders herself and has never known anyone to not believe in them, so Toby will never bring up his problem until Sarah finds him digging once again in the yard. His mouth will be covered in maggots, and ants will rest on his upper eyelids, and Sarah will scream so loudly, the neighbors wake up, but Toby will take her inside and try to explain. 

      “Why didn’t you say anything before?” Sarah will ask, and Toby will not answer.

       But they will talk about the problem for a few hours that night and the next and the next.

       Something very strange will happen with Sarah. She will listen, and she will follow Toby out to the garden and watch him slit his tongue and cry to the ground, and she will not leave, and one day, they will get married.

       Toby will never wake up and see a spider.

       Sarah believes this to be true.

       And weirdly, one day, it just won’t matter anymore. 

About the author: Gretchen Troxell is a third-year undergraduate student studying creative writing at Bowling Green State University. She is the fiction editor and treasurer for their undergraduate literary journal, Prairie Margins, and an intern at their graduate journal, Mid-American Review. She has been published in Fleas on the Dog and Quirk and is forthcoming in The Bookends Review, Allegheny Review, and Euphony Journal.

Winter Wheat Writing Festival Is Back to BGSU!

We’re thrilled to announce that Mid-American Review’s twenty-third Winter Wheat Writing Festival is back to BGSU from November 9th to November 11th. This year’s festival boasts an exciting lineup of over 45 in-person and online workshops covering fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and more. The full workshop schedule can be found here.

We’re honored to introduce our distinguished keynote speaker, Faylita Hicks, renowned for their critically acclaimed poetry collection, HoodWitch. Additionally, we’re excited to feature one of BGSU’s faculty members, Sharona Muir, the author of the story collection Animal Truth and the novel Invisible Beasts.

Winter Wheat is also featuring not one, but two exciting open mic nights on Friday and Saturday evenings. Friday’s open mic will take place at Howard’s Club in Downtown Bowling Green, and will be followed by a music performance by Zack Fletcher + The Toro Quartet, By the Willow, Chloe and the Strings. The event is co-hosted by Pella Felton and Bea Fields (THEYDAR). Our second open mic night will take place in Prout Chapel at the BGSU campus. Attendees are encouraged to attend both events and to share their own work with the audience! 

More information on our website. 

Winter Wheat is open to the public and free of charge. To register, visit our website: www.bgsu.edu/winterwheat.

To individuals with disabilities, please indicate if you need special services, assistance or appropriate modifications to fully participate in this event by contacting Accessibility Services at access@bgsu.edu or 419-372-8495. Please notify us prior to the event.

––Mays Kuhail, Winter Wheat Coordinator

Winter Wheat 2016: Odds & Ends Panels Part II

Winter Wheat is only two days away! Here’s the last of our panels:

 

“Hermit Crabs, Lyric Essays, and More: Alternatives in Nonfiction,” with Nicole L. Reber

This workshop will explore hermit crab essays, braided essays, listicles, and other fun forms that can have the added benefit of helping you be more productive and turn the heads of editors and contest readers. Use these alternative forms to push the boundaries of nonfiction. We’ll set aside two writing periods for exploring how you can tell your stories in the form on a prescription bottle, a recipe, or other curious ways. We’ll also discuss publications and contests that favor this type of writing.

Nichole L. Reber’s nonfiction, prose poetry, and lit crit have been in Entropy, Fanzine, World Literature Today, PANK, and elsewhere. She writes monthly on nonfiction, Asian lit, and world indigenous lit for the Ploughsharesblog. She won LunchTicket’s Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction this year.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 1:30-2:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select E7 when you register!)

 

 

“From Pen to Page to Stage: Secrets to Song Writing,” with Benji Katz and Mark Wierzbowski

Participants will learn about components of contemporary songwriting, including harmony, rhythm, and lyricism. We will talk about strategies for generating new material and dissect notable songs, figuring out what makes them successful in capturing the attention of an audience’s ear and imagination. Workshop members will then have the opportunity to employ these techniques in a lyric writing exercise and collaboration on a song at the end of the session.

Benji Katz is a member and songwriter of the band Indian Opinion. He is a poet in the MFA Program at BGSU.

Mark Wierzbowski is a member and primary songwriter of the band Indian Opinion. He is a senior music education major at BGSU.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 3:00-4:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select F4 when you register!)

Winter Wheat 2016: Odds & Ends Panels

 Take a look at these miscellaneous panels we have this year!

 

“Writing Different Cultures: To What Extent Can We Become Insiders?” with Lisa Favicchia

As writers, it seems only natural that we are influenced by our travels. However, what do we risk by writing other cultures? Can we ever really become insiders, and if so, to what extent? While writing other cultures presents an opportunity to promote understanding and global connection, we inevitably risk misrepresentation by assuming an understanding based on limited points of view. Through discussion and workshopping, this panel aims to address the potential benefits and risks of writing different cultures, to what degree we are insiders or outsiders, and how to approach fair representation.

Lisa Favicchia is the managing editor of Mid-American Review and is a second-year MFA candidate at BGSU. She is from Cleveland, OH, and spends a great deal of time with her bearded dragon, Smaug.

(this workshop will be held on Friday, November 4th from 3:00-4:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select A1 when you register!)

 

“Beg, Borrow, and Steal: Imitation Projects as Self-Discovery,” with Callista Buchen

In this workshop, we’ll consider how imitation projects—the study of an established writer and consideration of that writer’s particular techniques, strategies, and approaches to themes—help us to discover and develop our own unique voices. We’ll look at models of imitation projects and try our hand at writing that imitates or exists in conversation with another writer. All writers, regardless of genre, are welcome. Participants will leave with new ideas to implement in their work, as well as with the start of several new pieces.

To complement our own writing, we’ll also discuss the pedagogical possibilities for imitation projects, looking at models and successful sample assignments that participants can try on their own or use in the classroom. The workshop leaders will present a model of a semester-long imitation project, which culminates in a poster presentation suitable for conferences.

Callista Buchen is the author of The Bloody Planet (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) and Double-Mouthed (dancing girl press, 2016). Her work appears in Harpur Palate, Puerto del Sol, Fourteen Hills, and many other journals, and she is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award and DIAGRAM‘s essay contest. She is an assistant professor at Franklin College in Indiana.

(this workshop will be held on Friday, November 4th from 4:30-5:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select B1 when you register!)

 

“Repackaging Product Placement: Integrating Pop Culture in Storytelling,” with Elena M. Aponte and Derek I. Mitchell

As media and art become more beholden to nostalgia and corporate interests, we encounter the risk of cynically integrating popular culture in storytelling. Whether a cinematic zoom to a company logo or reliance on haphazard references in lieu of characterization, we can be locked into a limited shorthand. With analysis of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the Americana-drenched works of Stephen King, the recent phenomenon Stranger Things, and more, we will aim to meld popular culture to the whims of nuanced storytelling.

Elena M. Aponte is a second-year graduate student in the Literary and Textual Studies program at BGSU. Her research interests include: multicultural literature, graphic novels and Japanese manga, film, Feminist theory, gender and sexuality studies, and popular culture. She is half Puerto Rican, fluent in Spanish, and trying to learn a little more Japanese. She hails from Toledo, Ohio.

Derek I. Mitchell is a second-year graduate student in the Literary and Textual Studies program at BGSU. His research interests include dystopian literature, pandemic narratives, film analysis, postmodern politics, and popular culture. On weekends he returns home to Akron, OH, to visit his cat and robin.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 1:30-2:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select E1 when you register!)

 

 “Performance in Creative Writing,” with Olivia Buzzacco

How does the world of performance intersect with the world of creative writing? How does performance affect a poem? A story? Above all, how can performance be included into creative writing? This presentation will look to answer those questions and give live demonstrations of performance being applied to poetry/fiction, as well as allow writers to practice a “sound words” technique, and see how performance can bring their work to life.

Olivia Buzzacco is a second-year MFA student at BGSU. She has presented at Winter Wheat for three years, as well as the Conference on College Composition and Communication in 2013. She is from Youngstown, Ohio.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 1:30-2:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select E2 when you register!)

Winter Wheat 2016: Lit Techniques and Ideas Panels

Check out these great workshops at Winter Wheat!

“Writing Respectfully and Accurately about Characters with Disabilities,” with Sheri Wells-Jensen, Tex Thompson, Jason Wells-Jensen and Abberley Sorg.

Being inclusive means more than choosing to designate one of your characters as disabled. It means (1) asking yourself why you want to include that character, (2) doing the research to make sure you are able to portray that character with accuracy and respect, and (3) taking steps to follow through to make sure your depiction does no harm. This workshop provides guidelines and hands-on activities to practice these skills.

Jason Wells-Jensen was the “language architect” for Tex Thompson’s Children of the Drought series of rural fantasy novels. He has taught linguistics and ESL in Puerto Rico and on the mainland, and also has degrees in library science and music.

Sheri Wells-Jensen is a linguist at BGSU who specializes in teaching English to speakers of other languages. She has worked as a language creator for Scholastic Books and writes about disability with special emphasis on blindness.

Look for her internationally published epic fantasy Western series, Children of the Drought (Solaris), and find her online at www.thetexfiles.com!

Abberley Sorg is a student in the Literature and Textual Studies MA program at BGSU. Prior to this, she attended the University of Toledo’s Sociology MA program. Her research interests include representation of disability in media and literature and societal perceptions of individuals with personality disorders.

(this workshop will be held on Friday, November 4th from 4:30-5:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select B8 when you register!)

 

“Let’s Deal With This Thing Called Family,” with Marissa Medley

Families can be a source of inspiration for writers. Whether good or bad emotions flow from these relationships, they can give us much to write about. Here we can take a look at how to write about families and explore why we do this as writers. We’ll also look at writers like Sylvia Plath and Rita Dove. And, of course, we’ll have some writing time to get our emotions on paper.

Marissa Medley is a senior at BGSU studying arts management and creative writing. She is the poetry editor of BGSU’s Prairie Margins. She enjoys playing steel drums and working at the local record store.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 9:30-10:45am. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select C6 when you register!)

 

“Giving Snow White the Heimlich Maneuver and other Tales: Using Classic Tropes and Characters in Original Writing,” with Erika Schnepp

One of the strongest techniques a writer (of any genre) can employ is drawing on the common chords and tropes we as readers have seen since we were little: tropes like religious figures, characters from fairytales, and literary and pop culture figures who have managed to stand the test of time. Also increasingly popular is the updating of these characters for the modern era, introducing the figures and themes to new generations and even subverting outdated messages to better represent the lessons we want to pass down now versus generations ago. It is just as important that the stories are used in a fashion that increases a new theme and that the same story isn’t merely retold. This workshop will explore ways common tropes and characters are currently being updated and played with in prose and poetry, as well as methods to revitalize the tropes for your own work without being bogged down in their shared history.

E.B. Schnepp is a poet from rural Mid-Michigan who’s found herself in the flatlands of Ohio with an MFA from BGSU and a bad procrasti-baking habit. She is currently the Director of the Learning Center and Retention Coordinator at OSU Lima. Her work can also be found in Crab Fat, pacificREVIEW, and Paper Nautilus, among others.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 9:30-10:45am. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select C7 when you register!)

 

“Do Tell: 100 Facts for Writing Sensory Details,” with Laurin Wolf

Thanks to William Carlos Williams, we know, “There are no ideas but in things.” Thanks to the glittering handbooks for writers, we know that concrete details are what make writing powerful. We know we need more grit and gusto in our details. But how do we get at those precious details? If your prosody engine needs a jump-start on the details, do tell. In this workshop, we will look at examples from poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that rely on objects to tell a narrative. The workshop culminates in a fact-finding exercise using random objects to generate narrative.

Laurin Wolf has an MFA from Kent State in poetry. Her poems have appeared in Pittsburgh Poetry Review, PoetsArtists, Rune, Scholars & Rogues, PMS, and Two Review. She hosts the monthly reading series MadFridays and guest hosts the radio program Prosody on WESA. She teaches at Robert Morris University.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 11:00-12:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select D7 when you register!)

 

“Collars, Capes, and Chantilly Lace: Learn to Describe Clothing,” with Anne-Marie Yerks

Clothing is the costume of life and creates identity. What are your characters wearing? Lend a layer of realism to your fiction, poetry, and nonfiction with precise descriptions of fabrics, seams, and shapes. We’ll go over a fashion vocabulary list then swatch out a sample of fashion-forward prose.

Anne-Marie Yerks is the author of a novel, Dream Junkies (New Rivers Press, 2016), and lives outside Detroit. She has work forthcoming in Modern Memoir (Fiction Attic Press) and in Juked. She is a blogger for Sewingmachinesplus.com and is working on a BA in fashion. Find her @amy1620 and at www.annemariewrites.com.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 11:00-12:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select D8 when you register!)

 

“Making Details Matter,” with Christi Clancy, Alicia Holliday, Miette Muller, Lexi Schnitzer, and Alby Leonardi

A well-chosen detail has the power to reveal character, advance plot, convey social and economic status, and establish a sense of place. Think of the kielbasa and rosaries hanging from the car mirror in Stuart Dybek’s story “We Didn’t.”

This workshop will focus on some strategies I’ve employed to help writers make effective use of details, including classroom exercises and writing prompts. I also leverage the campus and surrounding community as fertile ground for quirky, surprising, and sometimes heartbreaking details. The trick is to move away from Google searches and out of our comfort zone; we are more likely to notice details when our senses are on alert in unfamiliar (but safe) spaces.

We’ll discuss activities like the “battle of the details” to architecture hunts, and field trips to quirky museums and strange auctions. We’ll engage the workshop in several short detail-writing exercises.

Christi Clancy teaches English at Beloit College. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, and in Glimmer Train Stories, Hobart, Pleiades, Midwestern Gothic, the minnesota review and elsewhere.

Alicia Holliday, Miette Mueller, Lexi Schnitzer, and Alby Leonardi are all students at Beloit College.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5th from 3:00-4:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select F2 when you register!)