Flash Fiction Open Mic: moderated by Lyzette Wanzer
Channel: Mechanics' Institute
Date: 2020-08-20

What we are facing in this country and worldwide is unprecedented as far as contemporary generations are concerned. The effects of the pandemic on social inequality, urban life, and industry have been both radical and sweeping. In this virtual open mic event, seven writers shared their flash fiction examining the truths and the lies we’re uncovering amid this global pandemic. 
 
Lizette Wanzer is an author, editor, and writing workshop instructor based in SF. Her articles, fiction, a novella, and essays have appeared in over 25 literary journals, books, and magazines. Her flash has appeared in Callaloo, Tampa Review, Pleiades, Potomac Review, Chautauqua Journal, West Wind Review, Flashquake, and Glossalia Flash Fiction. She has received four Individual Artist Commission grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, two of which were for flash fiction projects. Lizette has taught flash fiction at The Writers Grotto, Fremont Adult School, and The Writing Salon. She is the current judge of the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition’s Intercultural Essay category (submission deadline is November 30th!). Her newest project--Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative--is an essay anthology growing out of her 2020 AWP panel of the same name. The book will examine African American and Afro Latina authors’ experiences with one of the still-remaining systemic biases in schools, academia, the military, and corporate America: the interrogation, subordination, shaming, and problematizing of our natural hair.

Our readers include:

Shaenrayce Leigland - Our Imperfect. Shaenrayce Leigland has been a member of Mechanic's Institute Library since 2015. He currently resides in Alameda, California. His first novel, May We One Day Pick All the Shrapnel From Our Hearts, will be released by Tailwinds Press on October 15th, 2020.

Linda Hartmann - Mother Sent Us to our Rooms. Linda Hartmann has worked as a critical care, ER, pediatric ICU, and transplant nurse in San Francisco for 15+ years before working as a scientist at Genentech, Inc., a company that pursues novel therapeutics through groundbreaking science to develop medicines for people with serious and life-threatening diseases. She worked on the first approved targeted antibody for cancer, and went on to become Director and Sr. Director for other biotech companies, developing departments of Pharmacovigilance, Medical Affairs, and Dosimetry, overseeing infrastructure and mentoring of physicians, pharmacists, and other clinical staff while working on the development of other medical and cancer therapeutics, including vaccines. After retiring, she took up creative writing, and is now President of California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch.

Francee Covington - Uneasy Lies the Head of the Black Mom. Francee Covington is a retired television producer of magazine and public affairs shows.  She is currently working on a collection of short stories.  Her personal essay, "Uneasy Lies the Head of the Black Mom," was published in Ms. Magazine last month. 

Mitchell Toews - Freight Trains and Jet Planes. Mitchell Toews lives and writes lakeside in Manitoba. His writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies and he is currently working on an ekphrastic artbook containing photography and short fiction as well as a third edit on his novel, Mulholland and Hardbar. Follow him on the trails, on the water, across the winter ice, or more conveniently at Mitchellaneous.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads, and Twitter.

Simon Menkes - Coffee and Covid. Simon Menkes is a writer whose stories are as much about the journeys his characters take as the goals they achieve. He has just completed Kushland, a novel about a conservative young man from Georgia who inherits part-ownership in a Los Angeles cannabis dispensary. Based out of Los Angeles, Simon practices karate, tennis, and accounting in his spare time.



Cyndie Zikmund – Release All Claims. Cyndie Zikmund’s essays have been published by The Literary Traveler and the coming August, 2020 issue of Magnolia Review. She was the Creative Nonfiction Editor for Qu Literary Magazine in 2018-19 and is currently a contributing writer for Southern Review of Books. For her day job she is the Competitive Intelligence Manager at ServiceNow. She lives with her husband and two rescue pups in Woodside, CA. 

Chun Yu – The Pink Balloon. Chun Yu, Ph.D. is a bilingual poet, graphic novelist, and scientist. She is the author of the award-winning memoir in free verse Little Green: Growing Up During the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Simon & Schuster) and a historical graphic novel in progress (Macmillan) etc. Her website: http://www.chunyu.org