Kristie Smeltzer is an author whose writing has appeared in So to Speak, The Florida Review, Eclectica Magazine, and the Apeiron Review. Her story, “Bridges,” was a runner-up Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art’s 2007 Fiction Contest. Her story, “The Fine Art of Goldfish,” received an honorable mention in the WriterHouse/C-ville Weekly 2015 Fiction Contest and appears in Apeiron Review‘s Issue 10. Kristie is currently working on two novels. She earned her MFA at the University of Central Florida. She resides in Charlottesville, Virginia, and teaches at WriterHouse.
What captures your interest most in your work, now, as a reader?
I enjoy humor in writing, even in dramatic scenes, and dialogue that captures the quirks and shorthand of speech.
Authentic characters are what I love to read and aspire to write, so moments when characters boil down emotions and situations to their most distilled essence make me connect.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on novel that’s verging somewhere between mystery/thriller and literary fiction. I’m also working on a young adult novel that is top secret that I’m super excited about. And I’ve got a strong half-finished literary novel, part travelogue, part coming-of-age tale, fermenting in a figurative drawer somewhere that I one day hope to revisit.
And there are at least four stories in the works, because what better way is there to procrastinate from working on novels than by writing more short stories.
Who and what are your artistic influences?
I’m really drawn, in all art forms, to work that depicts moment of becoming or realization.
Authors who inspire me are Julie Orringer, Lorrie Moore, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Norman Maclean, Erin Morgenstern, and many others.
Eckleburg thanks Kristie. Do you have new work published here at Eckleburg or elsewhere? Add your Selfie Interview and share the news with our 10,000+ reading and writing community. If you have a new book out or upcoming, join our Eckleburg Book Club and let our readers know about it.
The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review was founded in 2010 as an online and print literary and arts journal. We take our title from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and include the full archives of our predecessor Moon Milk Review. Our aesthetic is eclectic, literary mainstream to experimental. We appreciate fusion forms including magical realist, surrealist, meta- realist and realist works with an offbeat spin. We value character-focused storytelling and language and welcome both edge and mainstream with punch aesthetics. We like humor that explores the gritty realities of world and human experiences. Our issues include original content from both emerging and established writers, poets, artists and comedians such as authors, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond, Stephen Dixon, poets, Moira Egan and David Wagoner and actor/comedian, Zach Galifianakis.
Currently, Eckleburg runs online, daily content of original fiction, poetry, nonfiction, translations, and more with featured artwork–visual and intermedia–from our Gallery. We run annual print issues, the Eckleburg Reading Series (DC, Baltimore and New York), as well as, the annual Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction, first prize $1000 and print publication, guest-judged by award-winning authors such as Rick Moody and Cris Mazza.
We have collaborated with a number of talented and high profile literary, art and intermedia organizations in DC, Baltimore and New York including The Poetry Society of New York, KGB Bar, Brazenhead Books, New World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review Online), The Hopkins Review, Boulevard, Gargoyle Magazine, Entasis Press, Barrelhouse, Hobart, 826DC, DC Lit and Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival at AWP 2013, Boston, for a night of raw comedic lit and music. We like to promote smaller indie presses, galleries, musicians and filmmakers alongside globally recognized organizations, as well as, our local, national and international contributors.
Rarely will readers/viewers find a themed issue at Eckleburg, but rather a mix of eclectic works. It is Eckleburg’s intention to represent writers, artists, musicians, and comedians as a contemporary and noninvasive collective, each work evidence of its own artistry, not as a reflection of an editor’s vision of what an issue “should” be. Outside of kismet and special issues, Eckleburg will read and accept unsolicited submissions based upon individual merit, not theme cohesiveness. It is our intention to create an experience in which readers and viewers can think artistically, intellectually, socially, and independently. We welcome brave, honest voices. To submit, please read our guidelines.
Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away. – The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
