I met so many interesting and good writers during my time at the Yale Writers’ Workshop. It was such a good group that, even though it was over so quickly, we’ve stayed in touch ever since.
This week, one of our YWW alumni, Maggie Maize, had such good news: one of her short pieces is being nominated for inclusion in the next edition of the Best Small Fictions anthology from Alternating Current Press. This is a big deal considering the stature of the list of guest editors; 2017’s guest editor was none other than Amy Hempel, one of the greatest short story writers of our time (I love Hempel’s stories so much I gave a tribute to her in a selection from one of my works-in-progress).
Maize’s piece is called “The Land Between” and was published in Lost Balloon magazine in 2025. She’s one of the most imaginative people I’ve ever met: when she writes you can feel the fullness of her mind, but she puts it in such graceful and light prose that it’s deceptively simple. Her words are the quiet surface of a river with a deep current; an image I created to match the ending of her short piece. You owe it to yourself to take the few minutes to read it.
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