Short Story Collection Seeking a Publisher:
The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility: A Web of Stories by Brent Robison
Illustrations by Wendy Drolma, 6x9 perfect bound, 184 pagesThe Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility links the disparate lives of ordinary people as they stumble through tiny everyday epiphanies on their way from confusion and loss toward redemption. With structures both traditional and experimental, these twelve stories explore the bonds of family; the impacts of religion; our intertwined struggles with grief, love, and addiction; the intangible connections through which we are influenced by strangers; and the blind but determined reaching for a conscious life that is common to human experience.
Stories in this collection have been published in a variety of journals and have won a Short Fiction Award and an Honorable Mention from Chronogram Magazine, a Fiction Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and a Pushcart Prize nomination.
Click the picture to download a PDF sample (8.6 MB), including cover design and the first 28 pages, with front matter, illustrations, and the first two stories.
New:
My story "A Partial Catalog of Harold's Major and Minor Epiphanies" appears in both print and online in the August 2008 issue of Chronogram, with Honorable Mention in their 2007 Fiction Contest.My story "Echoes: Five Men Speak" appears in the Summer Fiction issue of online magazine Jerry Jazz Musician.
Awards:
Literal Latte 2006 Short Short AwardThis condensed piece of fiction, "Desert Vacation," was written some years ago. I'm happy it saw the light of day in a well-regarded online journal, Literal Latte. It was up for several months under "Current Issue" but is now in their archives, here: http://www.literal-latte.com/cgi/cginews.pl?record=169.
Chronogram 2005 Short Fiction ContestRead my winning story on the Chronogram magazine website here:
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2005/09/literarysupplement/phoenixegg.phpOr as a printable PDF here: "Phoenix Egg: Three Vignettes"
1995-96 Fiction Writer's Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts / Department of State
Publication in Print:
My story "The Saxophone" appears in the inaugural issue of Margins Magazine.My story "A Confession of Love and Emptiness" was nominated for a 2008 Pushcart Prize by the editors of the literary annual, Silent Voices, Volume III. Buy the magazine! Or read/print the story here: A Confession of Love and Emptiness (PDF).
My first fiction publication was in RE:ISSUE #3 in 1993, with this story: Blues for Jane (PDF). The story has been expanded for the collection.
And I've published a wide variety of non-fiction in these newspapers and magazines:
Phoenicia Times, Phoenicia, NY; About Town Ulster Edition, Red Hook, NY; Remedy, NY, NY; ArtScene, Poughkeepsie, NY; ASK for Arts, Kingston, NY.
Publication Online:
See this short experimental fiction piece, called "Messenger" in Pindeldyboz: http://pindeldyboz.com/messenger.htm.Boston Literary Magazine has a category called "The Drabble" for stories of exactly 100 words. Read mine, "A Family Gathering," in their Fall 2007 Issue here: http://www.bostonliterarymagazine.com/fall07drabble.html.
A short piece with a long title, "A Tripartite Abstract of Sample Events Typifying a Recent Widespread Occurrence of Synchronous Subtle Phenomena, Currently Undergoing Statistical Validation by a Team of Independent Researchers," appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of The Smoking Poet. Read it here (PDF).
My fiction has also been published online in these literary magazines (both now defunct):
CRANIA
To read my story "Family Man," click here. This is one of the stories that helped me win the NJ Fellowship. I also self-published it in Prima Materia Volume 2.ALCHEMY
To read my story "Ferret Love," click here.
Click here for links to Writing Workshops and Publisher Friends.
