MATTER, a press & journal

In 1263, matter referred to a maker of mats. Consider this our welcome mat:

fortune cookies marbles broken drumstick tips skittles buttons figurines pebbles baby tomatoes bunnies temper tantrums stars we see bottled water punctuation hiccups small dogs stationary bikes smart phones smart children doormats dumbbells donut holes greeting cards vampire bats donating blood nicknames stubbed toes raised eyebrows toothbrush paste purell white hairs ukuleles teaspoons hot tubs miniature milky ways ritual sacrifice shivers christmas trees bonsai trees welcome travel shampoo bullets wiffle balls carpools pills espresso coca-cola tic-tacs second-hands wristwatches accidents dams lullabies street signs potholes handguns archeological finds common sense character flaws nail clippers ice cream dippers surround sound cereal somersaults symbolism claustrophobia lighters other people problems channel flickers popcorn kernels truth carbonation characterization stores convenience fireplaces ping pong balls wrapping paper packing peanuts boxes jingles clown cars tic-tac-toe toy poodle umbrellas signatures bugbites whiskey

 

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Matter Press obsesses over compression as a contemporary creative form, and we are much more interested in how compression matters to you than how it matters to us. Out of a dense singularity that contained the entire universe: matter! That’s what we are looking for, these particular moments of compression, out of which expand the universal. Or something like that.

 

To that end, we’ve created a journal that publishes weekly compressions & decompressions, a press that publishes  chapbooks and collections, and two blogs, one here and the other at FlashFiction.Net. Tiny things will also appear here & there in the margins. We like to think of compression not as a gimmick or a temporary notion of the times. We like to think of the tiniest things mattering in astounding and lasting ways. We look forward to being wowed by what you bring to the world of compression, of the largeness that expands beyond its confines, astounding us for eons to come.

Matter Press has published the following writers/artists:

Cezarija Abartis • Danielle Abramsohn • Nick Ackerson  • Allison Adair • Renee Agatep • Franklyn Ajaye • Michael Alessi • Christopher Allen • Roberta Allen • Sheri Allen • Steve Almond • Olfa Alouini • Maureen Alsop • Heather Altfeld • Rebecca Altman • Elizabeth Amon • E. Kirstin Anderson • Leah Angstman • Hobie Anthony • Kathi Appelt • Glen Armstrong • Dhrithi Arun • Amy Ash • Hannah Austin • Nancy Au • June Avignone • Sara Backer • Frances Badgett • Jenni Baker • Sybil Baker • Sudha Balagopal • Richard Baldasty • Akita Banerjee • Michael Barilleaux • Deanna Baringer • Wendy Barker • Duncan Barlow • Tanner Barnes • Matthew Barrett • Tyler Barton • Barry Basden • LS Bassen • Allie Marini Batts • Digby Beaumont • Lauren Becker • Paul Beckman • Jack Bedell • Helen Beer • Jonathan Beight • Cynthia Belmont • Julie Benesh • Meredith Benjamin • Eleanor Bennett • Annie Berke • Shinjini Bhattacharjee • Brett Biebel • Mason Binckey • Sacha Bissonnette • RK Biswas • Jenny Bitner • Barbara Black • Robin Black • Wendy Blankenship • Amy Bobeda • Annette Boehm • Emma Bolden • Robbie Bolluyt • Justin Bond • Ellen Boscov • Meg Boscov • Eric Bosse • Bruce Boston • Heather Bourbeau • April Bradley • J. Bradley • Robert Bradley • Marie Brandt • Kevin Bray • Rae Bryant • Callista Buchen • Mary Buchinger • Michael Buckius • Mark Budman • Stace Budzko • Marlene Buono • Aaron Burch • Kirstin Burcham • Delaney Burk • Mary Lou Buschi • Michelle Cacho-Negrete • Gabriel Calle • Lauren Camp • Bonnie Jo Campbell • Miranda Campbell • Tara Campbell • Kate Carmody • Marina Carreira • Mary Carroll-Hackett • Tavonne Carso • Laton Carter • Benjamin Cartwright • Anna Cates • Shanti Chandrasekhar • Sara Chansarkar • Yu Han Chao • Mare Chapman • Victorya Chase • Sanchita Chatterjee • Jesse Cheng • Peter Cherches • Sarah Cheshire • Floyd Cheung • Jari Chevalier • Elaine Chiew • Kim Chinquee • Sean Cho • James Claffey • James R. Coffey • Elizabeth Colen • Myfanwy Collins • Susan Comninos • Sue Ann Connaughton • Emily Conner  •  Christina Cook • Lydia Copeland • Tasha Cotter  • Noa Cova • Colleen Coyne • Karen Craigo • Nanette Crane-Post • Dan Crawley • Michael Credico • Paul Crenshaw • Adam Crittenden • Mary Crockett-Hill • Casey Cromwell • Sara Crowley • Andres Cruciani • Katya Cummins • Bailey Cunningham • Steve Cushman • Michael Czyzniejewski • Ja’net Danielo • Kristine Marie Darling • Carol V. Davis • Nicelle Davis • Jetse de Vries • Tommy Dean • Martins Deep • Jeanine Deibel • Jennifer Delisle • Josh Denslow • Jaydn DeWald • Uday Dhar • Debra Di Blasi • Julianne Di Nenna • Stephanie Dickinson • Barbara Diehl • Karen Dietrich • Karen Donovan • William Doreski • Merrill Douglas • Michelle Dove • Jacqueline Doyle • James Ducat • Taylor Duffy • John Dufresne • Brian Duke • Sarah Dunphy-Lelii • Alex Durham • Danielle Dyal • Erica Eastick • David Ebenbach • Erika Eckart • Elizabeth Edelgass • Meg Eden • Gwendolyn Edward • Theresa Senato Edwards • Pia Z. Ehrhardt • Nicolle Elizabeth • Sara Elkamel • Sherri Ellerman • Kelsey Englert • Andrew Ervin • Jamie Etheridge • Sarah Rose Etter • Sarah Everett • Lauren Fath • Grant Faulkner • Sandra Faulkner • Jeff Fearnside  • Briel Felton • Agnieszka Filipek • Gary Fincke • Lynn Finger • Caroline Firme • Kathy Fish • Brent Fisk • Harrison Fletcher • Sherrie Flick • Larry Fondation • Kelly Fordon • Debra Fox • Madison Frazier • Stefanie Freele • Jeff Friedman • Tyler Friend • Abby Frucht • Elisa Gabbert • Avital Gad-Cykman • Daniel Galef • David Galef • Tamara Gane • Scott Garson • Caitlin Garvey • Jo Gatford • Molly Gaudry • Amina Gautier • Roxane Gay • Vanessa Gebbie • Michael Gerard • Maria Gigante • Diane Gillette • Sarah Glady • Mx. Glass • Katherine Gleason • Gail Goepfert • Alisa Golden • Amy Goldmacher • Howie Good • Patrice Gopo • Gemma Gordon • Rae Gouirand • Andrea Goyan • Peter Grandbois • Shasta Grant • Jeanie Greensfelder • Nicholas Grider • Leah Griesmann • Mary Grimm • Ashley Grubb • Carol Guess • Stuart Gunter • Claire Guyton • Lydia Gwyn • Ira Joel Haber • David Hamlin • Emily Lake Hansen • David Hargreaves • Danielle Hark • Watsuki Harrington • James Harris • Shirley Harshenin • Tom Hazuka • Martin Heavisides • Nicole Hebdon • Liz Hedgecock • Kathleen Hellen • Robin Hemley • Kyle Hemmings • Justin Herrmann • Aubrey Hirsch • Emily Hockaday • Charles Holdefer • Mary Jane Holmes • Amy Holwerda • Paul Hostovsky • Kylie Hough • Jennifer Howard • Jen Huang • Sarah Huener • Aileen Hunt • Rose Hunter • Chris Huntington • Electra Hunzeker • Ashley Hutson • Luisa Igloria • Chidera Ahekereleome-Okorie • Jamie Iredell • Mike Itaya • Beverly Jackson • Tama Janowitz • Christopher James • Hall Jameson • Abriana Jette • Sasanka Jinadasa • Nick D’Annunzio Jones • Tim Jones-Yelvington • Jared Joseph • Len Joy • Jennifer Schomburg Kanke • Joe Kapitan • Genevieve Kaplan • Alisha Karabinus • Kirsten Kaschock • Lisa Kastner • Lucinda Kempe • Christopher Kennedy • Beth Kephart • Joan Kerr • Michael Kimball • Patrick Kindig • Clare Kirwan • J.I. Kleinberg • Cody Klippenstein • Laura Kochman • Adrian Gibbons Koesters • Kim Peter Kovac • Tereza Kramer • Minter Krotzer • Len Kuntz • Rich Larson • Tara Laskowski • Sueyen Juliette Lee • Diane Lefer • Hillary Leftwich • Cathy Lennon • Nate Liederbach • Kate Light • Jami Nakamura Lin • Sara Lippmann • Cynthia Litz • Nathan Long • Ben Loory • Sean Lovelace • David Luntz • Dylan Macdonald • Helen Mallon • Ravi Mangla • Jo-Ann Mapson • Jennifer Martelli • Michael Martone • Tara Masih • Courtney Mauk • Patricia McConnell • Mary McCluskey • Kevin McLellan • Ross McMeekin • Ellen Meister • Mary Meriam • Mary Miller • Douglas W. Milliken • David Mohan • Elizabeth Mosier • Katie Jean Moulton • Kristine Ong Muslim • Ariana Nadia Nash • Darlin’ Neal • Stefanie Nellen • Bill Neumire • Mary Noble • Thomas O’Connell • Takamichi Okubo • Robin Oliveira • Eric Otto • Pamela Painter • Ellen Parker • M.E. Parker • Laura Pavlo • Simon Perchik • Jennifer Pieroni • Lori Powell • Chad Prevost • Sam Price • Erin Pringle-Toungate • Peg Alford Pursell • Marcia Lynx Qualey • Zalisa Rabin • Stephen Ramey • Victoria Redel • Trish Rodriguez • Tara Roeder • Bruce Holland Rogers • Ethel Rohan • Nicole Rollender • Nicholas Rombes • Daniel Romo • Kathleen Rooney • Michelle Ross • Amy Rossi • Jim Ruland • Thaddeus Rutkowski • Jenny Sadre-Orafai • Matthew Salesses • Natasha Sajé • Sarah Sarai • Sheena Sauls • John Savoie • Greta Schuler • Peter Schwartz • Robert Scotellaro • Maureen Seaton • Betsy Seymour • Sagirah Shahid • Marian Shapiro • Bill Sheehan • Marc Sheehan • Greg Shemkovitz • T.L. Sherwood • Julia Shipley • Gail Siegel • Marge Simon • Mark Simpson • Hal Sirowitz • Robin Slick • Curtis Smith • Susanna Sonnenberg • C.J. Spataro• Adel Souto • Amber Sparks • Sheila Squillante • Victor Stabin • Andrew Stancek • Mike Stanko • Alina Stefanescu • Jennifer Steil • Wendy Rich Stetson • Chelsea Stickle • Nancy Stohlman • Romie Stott • Julia Strayer • Janice Wilson Stridick • A.E. Stueve • Jillian Sullivan • Robert Swartwood • Art Taylor • John Rathbone Taylor • Aaron Teel • Christina Thatcher • Kelly Lynn Thomas • Rachael Thomas • Jari Thymian • Bob Thurber • Girija Tropp • Alice Trout • Dean Marshall Tuck •  Deb Olin Unferth • Liza Gardner Walsh • Nance Van Winckel • Ania Vesenny • Kathleen Volk Miller • Ray Vukcevich • Karrie Waarala • Daniel Wallace • Hellen Wallace • Lin Wang • Cat Warren • Mark Lee Webb • Anne Weisgerber • Brandi Wells • Quinn White • Sarah Ann Winn • Louisa Wolf • Holly Woodward • Lee Wright • Xu Xi • Jane Yolen • Joseph Young • Amanda Yskamp • Changming Yuan • Shellie Zacharia

Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Upcoming:

04/01 • Lu Chekowsky
04/08 • Robin Turner
04/15 • TBD
04/22 • TBD
04/29 • TBD