You start with dreams and end up giving them away. The boat, the trolling motor, the ’59 Ford, the MG, the orchard ladder, the pick and shovel, the house and trailer. And they cost thousands. Thousands and thousands and you let them go. Give them away to friends, family, strangers, the free bin, Goodwill, the Bank. And more stuff arrives to take their place. Books, art, a bike, shirts hardly worn, a vase, programs with your name in them. Things pass through that don’t belong to you—parades, an egret flying toward you like an arrow, poems by poets you’ve never heard of, a curator’s smile. Dreams that last a moment, an afternoon, a night; dreams that linger and evaporate, that buoy you, that strike you down, that last until the end of a page, until the end of the earth, until you write them down, until the cat licks your nose, until you close the book. And this too, you give away.

Guy Biederman

teaches “low fat fiction” and is the author of five collections of poetry and short prose: Nova Nights (Nomadic Press, 2021), Edible Grace (KYSO Flash Press, 2019), Soundings and Fathoms: Stories (Finishing Line Press, 2018), House Samurai (Iota Press, 2006), and Parts & Labor (Thumbprint Press, 1992). His stories have appeared in dozens of venues including Carve, daCunha, Flashback Fiction, KYSO Flash, Sea Letter, Third Wednesday, and Exposition Review, where he was twice a Flash 405 winner. In 2018, his flash was nominated for the Best of the Net anthology.

Born in the Chihuahuan Desert near the Mexican border, Guy grew up on a Sting-Ray in Ventura, learned to write in the Peace Corps during a civil war in Guatemala, honed his craft pulling weeds and planting flowers as a gardener in San Francisco, and later received his M.A. from San Francisco State, where his teaching career began. He’s been a creative-writing midwife since 1991.

Guy lives on a houseboat with his wife and a salty cat, and walks the planks daily. It’s all true, especially the fiction.

Author’s website: https://www.guybiederman.com/

Author’s blog: This Day Afloat: Reflections of Life on the Water