The Zine

Little Elegy is a self-published, quarterly literary zine for works of tiny literature. I like to call the genre TinyLit. You can also find this type of work referred to as flash fiction, miniscule fiction, sudden fiction, damn short writing, or possibly even something else. But TinyLit is my name for it, and TinyLit is really a very great name when you think about it. TinyLit is like the fortune in a fortune cookie, the describe-yourself-in-ten-words-or-less, the if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose three sentences to take with you, which would you choose? Well?

In keeping with the smallness of the literature, I try to keep the zine itself to a rather smallish size. I find this makes them quite charming and collectible. Like miniature giraffes.

If you'd like to purchase an issue of Little Elegy, or are interested in becoming a distributor, please email Colleen via our contact form. You can also purchase copies of the zine at the following locations:

Foolscap Books
Eugene, OR

Tsunami Books
2585 Willamette St
Eugene, OR 97405
(541) 345-8986

Quimby's Bookstore
1854 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 342-0910

Ecolibrium Environmental Shop
1160 Capuchino Ave
Burlingame, CA 94010
(650) 342-6054

Meanwhile you can whet your appetite on excerpts from the current issue and a complete online archive of past publications.

The Name

Little Elegy takes its name from an art song I fell in love with while studying music in college. My favorite American composer, Ned Rorem (1923- ), set the so-named poem by Elinor Wylie (1885-1928) to music. (I would reproduce the text, but the poem is copyrighted and cannot be displayed here.)

So the title is less a description of the contents of my TinyLit zine, and more a tribute to my favorite song and composer. Ned has impeccable taste in poetry, setting the texts of poets such as e. e. cummings, Paul Goodman, Walt Whitman, WH Auden, and others to his unique and glorious music.

I recently met Ned at an Other Minds music festival here in San Francisco. He signed my calendar. Yeah!

The Mailing List

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The Staff

Colleen Marlow, editor

Colleen possesses a strange affinity for French, although she doesn't speak it; for the carnival rides and amusements of yesteryear, although she wasn't alive to see them; for the water, despite a paralyzing phobia of fish; and for pigeons and songs about pigeons… written in French, of course. For as long as she can remember, she has also been fond of all things tiny. You can get in tough with her through our online contact form.

Adam Messinger, websmith

Adam has been described by friends as "smart," "funny," "creative," "unique," "weird," "busy," "late," and "tall" (he knows a lot of short people). A closet exhibitionist, he finally gave in and got a blog. Adam has a love/hate relationship with his facial hair. He is presently in his underground lair, plotting world domination through excellent web design.

You can e-mail Adam your glowing praise about this site (or report problems) using our online contact form. If you'd like Adam to make your own web site better, contact him through his business site.