Stories on Postcards

February 18, 2010

Those who know me know that I LOVE postcards– well, vintage postcards anyway.

And, making my own. (more samples on my Flickr page to the right–>)

Sometimes my friends, like Peter and Jess, give me old postcards they find or old family postcards–especially Jess, whose family seems to have thousands of them.

here’s one.  don’t remember where I got it. the back of it says National Arts Centre, Ottawa Canada “one of five luminous hanging sculptures… by William Martin.”

I was part of a home-made post-card trade–Post.due– that was fun for a bit but then it sort of disappeared, or maybe they disappeared me? (two of my postcards–featuring Dick and Jane– are at the bottom of the page).

Then I discovered Tin Parachute Publishing– also defunct– but they were so cool. They would print a tiny story on a postcard and someone would create art to go with it and then they would send it out. How cool to have a teeny tiny story on a postcard sent out to subscribers– and to have someone create art based on your story. This has happened to me once, when I wrote a piece for the Canadian magazine Maisonneuve.

One of my favorite stories was by the writer Pedro Ponce– see the postcard below. And then it turns out Pedro and I were at the same residency in January so I got to meet him. (and he’s not only a terrific writer but a terrific guy).

I wish Tin Parachute Publishing were still going–I’d love to have sent them something. Does anyone know if there are any short story postcard journals out there?

Maybe I should get one started? Hmm, like I need another distraction from my own writing, right?

(click on the postcard to read the story)