As we have pointed out in numerous previous posts, one of the least expensive ways to quickly build an interesting and substantial private library is to collect what everyone else is not collecting. This might be authors or subjects that others consider too risque or silly, for example; or it could be authors or subjects that once were popular, but which are perhaps less so nowadays; or it could be authors or subjects which still are under the radar of fellow book collectors.
Into that latter category must surely be placed the genre of hint fiction. Robert Swartwood coined the concept a mere two years ago, suggesting that extremely short fiction might be the key to getting the Twitter Generation more interested in fiction per se:
Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s infamous six-word story — “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn” — Hint Fiction is a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story. These are complete stories that hint at a larger story, not a first sentence or random sentence plucked from a larger work thinly disguised as a story.
Though Swartwood originally created this "genre" as something of a lark, it apparently was a genre whose time had come: his 2010 anthology of such fiction (see image below left) received very favorable reviews, including an appearance on NPR's Weekend Edition:
Because the Fair Use provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act do not contemplate reproduction of text this short, we refer you to Swartwood's own site for the winners of his 2009, 2010 and 2011 contests for such fiction.
Although traditional authors have yet to till this largely unplowed ground (John Sheirer -- see image above right -- being a notable exception), we suspect that the genre may yet attract a following (as have cell phone novels). After all, if novellas and short stories demand too much of your time....
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