Jennifer Fliss

Jennifer Fliss (she/her) is a Seattle-based writer with over 200 stories and essays that have appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, Hobart, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She was a Pen Parentis Fellow and recipient of a Grant for Artist Project award from Artist’s Trust. She has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize and her story, Hineni, was selected for inclusion in the Best Small Fictions 2019 anthology. Her flash fiction collection, The Predatory Animal Ball will be published in late 2021. She is an alumna of the Tin House Summer and Winter Writers’ Workshops.

Twitter: @writesforlife

Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?

Return to Oz. This eerie sequel should be on every writer’s watch list. It’s so dark and twisted, I can’t imagine that they wanted children to watch it. I probably saw it too young. But it’s informed my sensibilities. I veer toward the dark. There’s this one scene where Dorothy is in this great room filled with thousands of tchotchkes and she has to touch ones that she thinks are her friends (a witch has turned them into these knick-knacks). Dorothy has to decide which vase, lamp, figurine reflects her friends’ personalities. Ever since I love a list in writing, a thrift store, so many items that can say more about a character.

Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?

If it were life or death, I’d choose savory, but fortunately I don’t have to choose because I really like combining sweet & savory at the same time. One of my all-time favorite meals is from a place here in Seattle called Café Presse. I get their chocolat chaud & a croque madame and they’re heavenly together.

I do often bake when I’m feeling inspired. And my homemade comfort meal would be mac & cheese or brisket.

Food factors into a lot of my stories. Food is so mired in our history. It can reflect our ancestors, our rebellion against family, acceptance of others. In stories it can express a socioeconomic level, background, be a comment on domesticity. We need food to live, but it’s also one of the most telling things about who we are. And taste, being one of our senses is really critical if you want to create a robust story. Sensory details are key and taste is one often forgotten.

I can’t imagine not including food into my work. So while food itself may not be the inspiration usually for my stories, it’s still an inspiration point within my work, if that makes sense.

Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?

I have a great appreciate for art, but there really isn’t one famous work of art that I could answer this question with. I do love Marc Chagall and I recently read his memoir, “My Life,” which really inspired and impressed me and made me want to learn even more about him. He was such a poet!

My favorite is my daughter’s art or my friends’ art. I really love art that is made by someone I love. I’m a sentimental sap and when things have personal meaning, that becomes something of high value to me. And I get to display it in my home! I can visit those pieces of art without paying! I know this isn’t what you’re asking really. But truly, I’d rather have a painting by a friend up in my hall than a Renoir.

If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?

I’m a big fan of Edward Gorey, haunted houses, so something dark. Maybe art of haunted houses – but not only photographs. Paintings, multimedia, large type stories that can be plastered on walls. I want to see a mural that’s all just text and it’s a flash story about a haunted house. Maybe it would be on the side wall OF that haunted house. Visitors can feel free to leave their ghosts behind in one exhibit. This can be written on post-its, be photographs, clothing items, anything they want to discard and not take with them. OOhhh this is really fun to envision.

Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?

I was an avid sticker collector as a child. As a grown-up I don’t collect anything per se, but I have a few collections, if that makes sense. I have a small collection of ceramic friars. I don’t know why exactly, except that I found them cute…and then I kept finding more, and they were so quirky I had to have them. When I moved away from NYC, I refused to get rid of my metrocards and now every time I visit I keep any new ones. I hear they’re phasing them out and I’m weirdly wrecked about it. As a result of this initial collection, I keep all metro transit cards from anywhere I visit now. We have a collection of antique cameras, also unintentional, my husband and I both came into our relationship with a bunch that had come from our family. They are on a shelf on display.

Oh, and actually, I just unpacked my Halloween decorations and realized I collect those little ceramic Halloween houses. My cousin gets them for me for my birthday every year (my birthday is on Halloween.) We have a whole little Halloween Town. I love it in its tiny, detailed creepiness!