Twelve Days of Giving Reason Six: NANO Was My First Publication – Kelsie Hahn

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NANO Fiction: So NANO Fiction was your first publication. What issue were you featured in?

Kelsie Hahn: Issue 2.1, from Spring 2008.

NF: Were you familiar with flash fiction before reading NANO? How did you first get interested in flash as a form?

KH: I was writing flash, and then I found out there was a name for it. For several years I thought I would go into journalism, and I was doing a lot of that kind of writing for school papers and community papers in high school and college. Reporting forces you to focus on the most important information, the most telling quotes, the key moments, and refine everything down small. While I was in the undergrad creative writing program at the University of Houston, I started bringing those journalistic sensibilities to my fiction.

NANO Fiction was my main introduction to the wider world of flash fiction, and I’m glad I found it so early in its existence. Of course it was exciting and affirming to publish here, but the journal has also been a fantastic resource for me as a writer and as a teacher.

NF: What’s one word that describes what it’s like getting published in NANO?

KH: Fraternal(?) By which I mean, it feels like you’ve surrounded your story with good friends.

NF: How has your writing changed since your publication in NANO?

KH: The biggest change is that I’ve gotten bolder in structure and voice. Those are elements I wasn’t thinking about as much in my writing in 2008, and they’ve become fun and important aspects for me to play with as I write. They open up stories in so many different ways.

NF: What can we expect next from Kelsie Hahn?

KH: My chapbook “Responsibility” just came out with Lit House Press, and it’s all flash. I’m also really grateful to have flash forthcoming with Caketrain, The Frank Martin Review, Sundog Lit, and Quaint Magazine.

I’ve been toying with longer, connected works composed of flash pieces. Novels in flash such as Threats by Amelia Gray and I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying by Matthew Salesses challenge me to think about how they work, and that’s a direction I’d like to explore. It’s an absorbing puzzle.

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