Soon after I edited the short story anthology Flash Fiction Funny (Blue Light Press, 2013), Ravi Shankar floated the possibility of doing a flash humor folio in Drunken Boat. As an avid fan of both editing and laughing, this seemed like a swell idea to me. We immediately decided to widen our boundaries and consider all genres of writing, as long as the piece came in under 750 words.

Flash Lit Funny, or Flash Funny Folio if you want to maintain the “f” alliteration (and who doesn't, right?) was a hoot to put together. Hearty thanks to Ravi for suggesting this project and for providing a second set of editorial eyes, especially on the poems. That said, if you start reading and don’t laugh, blame me. But you will—laugh, that is.

Let me end with a few words about the flash genre. Unlike when I helped edit the original Flash Fiction (W.W. Norton, 1992) with its 750-word limit, excellent short-short pieces are easy to find these days. Many fine magazines publish solely flash fiction, and sub-genres have developed, with somewhat fluid definitions. For example, my anthologies include You Have Time for This (Ooligan Press, 2007), with a 500-word limit, and Sudden Flash Youth (Persea Books, 2011), stories under 1000 words with protagonists who are teenagers or children. But to my admittedly hidebound mind, any book with the words “Flash Fiction” in the title should use the 750-word cutoff.

OK, enough math. May these works bring you unbridled joy, or at least chortles and guffaws aplenty.

Tom Hazuka
Flash Funny Folio Editor
August, 2014