Mar 30, 2017
The 2017 Best Small Fictions lineup has been announced. We nominated five stories for the anthology. We’re pleased to report that “Gazebo,” by Shane Jones was selected as a finalist. This story originally appeared in The Conium Review: Vol. 5.
Several previous contributors also appear on the list of finalists and winners for stories published in other literary magazines, including Jen Knox (contributor to The Conium Review Vol. 1, No. 1), Ingrid Jendrzejewski (contributor to our website, Vol. 4, and Vol. 5), Philip Sterling (contributor to The Conium Review Online Compendium).
Our 2017 Flash Fiction Contest judge, Rebecca Schiff, has also been selected for the anthology. Additionally, our 2016 Flash Fiction Contest judge, Leesa Cross-Smith, was selected as a finalist.
Congrats to all the other authors who made the short- and long-list for Best Small Fictions! View the full list here.
Dec 30, 2016
The big day is finally here. About two weeks after The Conium Review: Vol. 5 paperback hit shelves, the collector’s edition is ready to go out into the world.
As with previous collector’s editions, the contents are handcrafted with care. Each booklet has been designed to form an aesthetically cohesive collection of stories. The 3″ by 3.25″ booklets are printed with craft paper covers, a parchment title page, and linen inner pages. They are saddle bound and then tied together with natural hemp twine. Finally, there’s a wax seal that keeps the parcel together, and it’s deposited neatly into a little wooden box hand-stamped with archival ink. In total, there are eleven micro-chapbooks (one for each story in the issue) plus a little black booklet that contains copyright info, masthead details, and the table of contents.
In this collection, you’ll find new work from Jessica Roeder, Samantha Duncan, Liz Kellebrew, Kate Gies, Shane Jones, Kathryn Hill, Emily Koon, Jasmine Sawers, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, and Maryse Meijer. A woman falls in love with a giant banana, a tiny goat takes up residence in a woman’s left ventricle, a ghost tour goes awry, and more.
This box set will be shipped to contributors and a few of our bookstore and library partners first. Once those orders have gone out, the remaining copies of the collector’s edition will go up on our website for sale to the general public. This is a limited-run product, and we expect it to sell out. Be sure to check our online store regularly if you’re trying to snag a copy!
Dec 23, 2016
The Conium Review: Vol. 5 paperback edition officially launched on December 15th. The Vol. 5 collector’s edition is slated for December 30th.
Like the Vol. 3 collector’s edition and the Vol. 4 collector’s edition, we’re loading up a wooden box with individual handmade objects. Each story will be represented as its own micro-chapbook.
This year’s box will actually be more box-ish than previous years (rather than resembling a wooden book). It’s roughly a 3.5-inch cube (not quite a cube — one side is around 4 inches — but close enough). It’s fitted with a metal latch and hinges. This box will be hand-stamped with the title, ISBN, and price.
Over the next few days, will show other pieces of the collector’s edition, leading up to its reveal and sale on December 30th. Stay tuned!
Dec 15, 2016
Ingrid Jendrzejewski’s “The Box of Skinny Women” has been named a semifinalist for the Vestal Review Award (aka the “VERA”). The next step is a reader’s poll. You can find Ingrid’s story and the other semifinalists on the Vestal Review website. Be sure to vote for your favorite story by December 30th.