We’re two days away from Flash Fiction for Charity at Great Leap Brewing’s Original No. 6 (friendly emphasis: that’s the courtyard/hutong location). The doors will open at 2:30 pm, with the event kicking off shortly thereafter. If you’re interested in a seat, we have just a few spots still available for reservation: please email fiction@beijingcream.com. (We’ll also take walk-ups, but you might have to stand/lean.) The 50 RMB ticket gets you a free beer, with all proceeds going to Educating Girls of Rural China.
Over the past week, judges read 29 anonymized entries and did the agonizing deed of choosing only five. All the caveats of these sort of subjective appraisals apply here: don’t be disheartened if your submission was not chosen. Be the opposite: we’re hoping a vibrant crowd of fiction lovers will gather this Sunday; we already know representatives from several fiction circles in town (a reading group, at least two writing groups, an online writers colony, etc) will be present, so let’s mingle and have fun.
While we had to choose five readers, how happy we are that these are our five:
- William Wang, The Antecedents of a Rodent
- Daniel Tam-Claiborne, If Not for the Melon
- Qing Qing Chen, Reckoning
- Rosalyn Shih, Taishan No. 20
- Jacques Qu, Delivery
In addition, Kaiser Kuo – rock star, Sinica host — will be reading a story about a dishwasher’s coming-of-age in early-90s Beijing, and Susan Barker will be reading an excerpt from her acclaimed novel The Incarnations.
We’ll have two more posts before the event, including a Q-and-A with an EGRC advisor and some mini-profiles of the readers. For now, here are the first lines of the winning entries:
The Antecedents of a Rodent. “I had a dream last night. Mother says rats don’t dream, but I do.”
If Not for the Melon. “We discussed it, and after a time decided on the watermelon.”
Reckoning. “The faintings started on the subway.”
Taishan No. 20. “I didn’t smoke my first real cigarette until I was twenty-five.”
Delivery. “6 AM, I wake up on my upper bunk in the company dormitory with a lingering happiness from a dream.”
Flash Fiction for Charity is July 13, 2:30 pm at GLB Original No. 6. Direct all inquiries to fiction@beijingcream.com.
