When Guy Raz officially became the weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered last summer, two of his goals were to make the show more interactive and to somehow get a professor from Harvard who he really admired involved.
He found a great way to achieve both: he started the “Three-minute Fiction” contest, open to any work of original fiction under six hundred words, and had it judged by the professor he so admired, James Wood. Yeah, that James Wood.
The first two rounds of TMF brought in over ten thousand entries. Many entries were posted on the site, winners were invited on the show and had the pleasure of hearing Wood read their story aloud. The first round had no restrictions besides word count, but in order to make the competition more challenging for the second, Wood provided the first line: “The nurse left work at five o’clock.” Now the third round, judged by NPR book reviewer Alan Cheuse, requires people to tell a story about a specific photograph, now posted on the site. The forth will be judged by Ann Patchett. God knows what she’ll make you do.
There’s a lot that’s exciting about this project: it gets non-writers writing, and there’s enough interest in hearing fiction that it’s being featured on what’s generally a news and public affairs show. And though micro-fiction/flash fiction/short short fiction is increasingly popular, now it’s essentially being promoted by our most celebrated and controversial literary critic. Regardless of what you think of Wood, having him involved in the project lends the form a lot of credibility. Now maybe you’ll find the courage to show your parents that short you just got published. Now maybe instead of nodding and frowning with an obvious “you could have been a dentist” thought-bubble floating above their head, they’ll think, “Oh, this is what that nice British man was talking about on smart people radio a while back.”
Guy Raz spoke to me about TMF from his home in DC, where he and his one-year old son Henry were snowed in.
Tell me why you created “Three-Minute Fiction” and how you got James Wood involved:
“Last year, I was at Harvard on a Neiman Fellowship to study national security related issues, and I decided to take James Wood’s Post-War British and American Fiction class. It was an incredible class and a wonderful diversion from the other things I was studying. We chatted now and again after class and I knew that I really wanted to get him on NPR when I came back. I was also thinking of a way to create a more interactive feature on ATC on the weekend and I thought fiction might be a good way to bring listeners in and create a tighter connection to the show and the people who listen to it.
As my fellowship was wrapping up I called Wood and said let’s meet for coffee and we did and I told him my idea. ATC is an hour on the weekend, so I’d ask people to write a piece of fiction that could be read in under three minutes and to see how it went. I asked him if he’d be the judge, and he said yes. It was just serendipitous that I happened to take his class.”
The response was enormous. Any idea why the contest was such a hit?
“The stories can’t be more than six hundred words, so it’s a great mental exercise. You have to deliver a narrative or a piece of a narrative and you have to do it quickly. You don’t have the time for self-indulgence or literary flourishes. It was a challenge for people who practice writing and was something that seemed doable to people who don’t write three thousand words a day as professionals.
Of course, James Wood is such a well-known person in the literary world, so I think a lot of people wanted to see what he would think of their story. And Wood has this great voice; I think a lot of people were interested in having James Wood read their story out loud.
The response threw all of us for a loop. I just didn’t expect so many people to get involved but they did and that was it. The homepage for TMF was of the most visited parts of NPR.org last year, and we only started it in July.”
What are your thoughts about getting work from “writers” vs. “non-writers?”
“The contest is really for everybody, and it’s a big experience for the show as well, and in order for it to work we need everyone who’s even thinking about taking part to try it.
The winner of the last round, Cathy Formusa, is a massage therapist. Round one winner was Molly Reid. She’s a professional, unpublished writer (can I get a that on a t-shirt?) and a waitress and a part-time English teacer. One of the most incredible submissions was from Teresa Amend. She’s not a professional writer, she’s never attempted to be a professional writer, but she’s a great writer. She has subsequently submitted commentary to our program on everything from Alzheimer’s to breast cancer, and we’ve put it on our show unrelated to three-minute fiction.”
What’s new for this round of the contest?
“In this round we have a photograph to narrow the contest and make it more challenging.
Additionally, we needed to figure out a way to make TMF a part of our show that we could manage, and we realized we needed a set of readers we could trust. We received so many entries for the past two rounds and they took a long time to process. The staff of our show is only eight people, including myself. Everybody on staff was reading these stories; they spent their weekends and nights reading them, in addition to doing everything else they had to do for the show. And they were flagging their best stories and giving them to James. James ended up reading at least one thousand stories himself.
For this round producer Kate Davidson reached out to the Iowa Writers Workshop and asked if they’d be readers for the first wave of submissions. Now we have twenty MFA students taking part in the process. We’ll send our selections to Alan and he’ll take it from there.”
When I shared my thoughts about what the contest might do for micro-fiction, Raz said. “If it’s adding to the momentum of something that’s out there that’s amazing.” So now it’s up to you to make it even more amazing. Do it. Nerds everywhere will be listening.
