Awards
Flume Press 2007-2008 Fiction Prize
Randall Brown's collection of (very) short fiction, Mad To Live becomes #23 in the Flume Press Series. Reviews from Quick Fiction, The Short Review & Word Riot—and interviews with Whidbey Writers' Program & TSR.
"Little Magpie" 2010 Pushcart Prize Nomination
"You Want" 2010 Pushcart Prize Nomination
"Bats & Balls" 2010 Pushcart Prize Nomination
Losing in General: A Collection of Short Fiction 2008 Subito Book Contest for Innovative Writing • Editors' Favorite
"Too-Rough Fingers of the World" Pushcart Nomination, 2007
"Delivery Boy" Million Writers Award • Notable Story of 2007
"Delivery Boy" O. Henry Prize Nomination
"So Much Depends Upon" Best of the Web, Dzanc Books Nomination (2007)
"Good Kid" 2007 Best of the Net Fiction Anthology Finalist
"So Much Depends Upon" 2007 Best of the Net Fiction Anthology Nomination
"Not Ugly Enough" Pushcart Nomination, 2004
Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Finalist, Grace Paley judge
Commencement Speaker, Jenkintown High School, 1997 & 2006
Readings, Interviews, & Professional Presentations
Featured Author Upwords Reading Series Pittsburgh, PA September 2009
Featured Author Rosemont Writers' Retreat Rosemont, PA June 2009
Featured Writer Chico State University Chico, CA May 2009
Featured Writer University of Pittsburgh with Michael Kimball & Sherrie Flick March 2009
Fiction Judge The Lantern Ursinus College March 2009
Presenter 2008-09, 2006-07, 2005-06 Highland Park Literary Festival Dallas, Texas
Past participants include Tim O'Brien, George Plimpton, Russell Banks, Michael Chabon—and Kaye Gibbons in 05-06, Anchee Min in 06-07, and Billy Collins in 08-09.
Featured Presenter Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group January 2009
Guest Editor/Moderator PS Push to Publish Rosemont College October 2008
Guest Lecturer "Writing in General: Keeping the Momentum Going Post-MFA" Vermont College of Fine Arts October 2008
Featured Author Apostrophe Cast Reading & Interview September 2008
"Short Story Beginnings" The Writing Show August 2008
"Short Story Endings" The Writing Show May 2008
"Flash Cracking: Randall Brown" God Shuffled His Feet
Featured Writer Writing Aloud 2007-2008 Season: InterAct Theatre Company Philadelphia
The award-winning series, Writing Aloud, celebrates its ninth season in 2007/2008. Known for presenting diverse voices in contemporary fiction, Writing Aloud features short fictional stories by the region's best writers, read on stage by professional actors.
Featured Presenter on Flash Fiction 60th Annual Philadelphia Writers 2008 Conference
Featured Author Writer Profile Project
Featured Reader Hunger Mountain Anniversary Reading Philadelphia
Editorial Panel University of Pennsylvania, International House October, 2007, Philadelphia
Featured Writer Writing Aloud 2006-2007 Season: InterAct Theatre Company Philadelphia
Featured Author Cornelia Street Cafe Flash Fiction Series NYC
Featured Author Philadelphia Stories at The Bourse Philadelphia
Featured Author 2006 Poets & Writers Festival Philadelphia
Featured Author Mad Poets Series — Flash Fiction Philadelphia
Featured Author "On Flash Fiction: An Interview with Randall Brown" Per Contra Winter 2006
Vermont College Graduate Lecturer Holding Out For A Hero: The Monomyth And The Deep Truths Of Short Story Structure July 2006
Expert Witness Pennsylvania Board of Education: On Curriculum Reform
Presenter • NSCI National Conference on "Standards and Assessment" Las Vegas
Presenter • NSCI National Conference on "Standards, Assessment, and Curriculum" Phoenix
Presenter • NSCI National Conference on "Increasing Student Achievement" Phoenix
Published and Forthcoming Work
Anthologies
"Theo & Annie" Dogs: Wet & Dry—A Collection of Canine Flash Fiction, Forward by Rick Bass
"Set Up" Dogzplot Flash Fiction Anthology 2009
"Father Nature" Rough Beast (Stories of Exile and Unrequited Love) Bannock Street Books
"Skip, Patch, Eye, Chalk, Brownie" Skip, Patch, Eye, Chalk, Brownie (Coming-of-Age Stories) Bannock Street Books
"The Bone Orchard" Smokelong Quarterly 5th Anniversary Issue Summer 2008
"Maimed King," Better Non Sequitur Press, See You Next Tuesday Anthology
"Fiction Only," Rain Farm Press Paradigm, Vol. 1 Anthology
Includes contributions from Dr. Stephen Greenblatt, Glen Phillips, Vienna Teng, Drew Struzan, Graham Joyce, Raymond Benson, and Emmy-winner Michael Chiarello.
"Finally, A Husband Who Gets It" Susurrus Press Anthology October 2007
“Finally, a Husband Who Gets It” by Randall Brown is about a husband who realizes his wife is avoiding sex with him and so is driven to improve himself and reclaim her interest—which all reads like an extended advertisement for Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Still, “Finally” is a fun story, dressing up the familiar battle of the sexes with good-natured humor and good intentions.
"The What The World Wants Blues" Best of the Skive Story Prize (2006)
"Sick" Laugh It Off Annual 2006
"Bats & Balls" Very Short Fiction 2006
"Flies: Wet, Dry and In-Between" Best of Philadelphia Stories 2007
Micro Fiction
Le Meridien hotels recently purchased five (5) fifty-word stories for their worldwide cafés, as part of their 50 words/50 beans Illy Coffee promotion.
Short Stories
"All That Is Solid" Timber Creek Review Fall 2009
"Two Dianas" The Laurel Review Spring 2009
"Set in Stone" Night Train March 2009
"Mad To Live" Connecticut Review Spring 2008
"Losing in General" The Evansville Review Volume XVIII 2008
"A Myth of Recovery" Dalhousie Review Fall 2007
"Delivery Boy" The King's English Spring 2007
"Dog Whispers" The Saint Ann's Review Fall 2006
"Helen's Mask" Cairn Summer 2006
"Flies—Dry, Wet, and In-Between" Philadelphia Stories (Print & Web)
"Rave On" Timber Creek Review Winter 2004
"Last Name" The Iconoclast #88 January 2005
"A Myth of Bowling Alleys" Ink Pot #4
"A Myth of Bowling Alleys" Lit Pot Vol. 3 No. 8
"Flies Without Hooks" Desert Voices Spring 2004
"Sweet Aorta Tonight" Mudrock: Tales and Stories Winter 2006
Flash Fiction
"The Celebrity" Minnetonka Review Winter 2010
"Bit Part" Pank January 2010
"How You Write a Story" Eclipse: A Literary Journal Fall 2009
“Fifty Words, Ten Times” Pacific Coast Journal Fall 2009
"The Saddest City Lane" Worcester Review Fall 2009
"Memorial" Pennsylvania English Fall 2009
"Under It" Plain Spoke Fall 2009
"Equinox" Plain Spoke Fall 2009
"My Pretty" Plain Spoke Fall 2009
"Curving Space" The Armchair Aesthete Summer 2009
"Chosen" Linnet's Wings July 2009
"Hiding Nothing" Gargoyle #55, June 2009
"It Doesn't" Quick Fiction Volume 15, June 2009
"Bright" Prick of the Spindle June 2009
"Future Perfect Tense" Cream City Review Spring 2009
"And There He Is Saying His Prayers" Redivider Spring 2009
"Skip A Life Completely" RE:AL Spring 2009
"Red Buoy" Quiddity International Literary Journal and Public-Radio Program Spring 2009
"Product" elimae May 2009
"Such A Thing" Isotope May 2009
"Early Man" J Journal May 2009
"Undiscovered" Folio April 2009
"Martian" Sou'wester April 2009
"What He Said" Interim Magazine April 2009
"Yes, Him" Grey Sparrow Press April 2009
"Skips" Qwerty March 2009
"Not Once, Not the Entire Time" Qwerty March 2009
"Our Last Fishing Trip" Coal City Review March 2009
"Oh, Glass" Feile-Festa April 2009
"Laughs" Upstairs at Duroc April 2009
"Pink" Upstairs at Duroc April 2009
"Spring Creek" Upstairs at Duroc April 2009
"Reuben and Rosemary" FRiGG April 2009
"Kangaroo" FRiGG April 2009
"Other" FRiGG April 2009
"Jupiter" FRiGG April 2009
"Myrtle" FRiGG April 2009
"Karma" FRiGG April 2009
"Moments Later" FRiGG April 2009
"Bounce, Wheels, Battery, Silver, Cart" FRiGG April 2009
"Even After" Conceit Magazine April 2009
"What to Do" Compass Rose March 2009
"Imagine" Broadkill Review March 2009
"Hear Them Now" Argestes March 2009
"Slivers" New Works Review March 2009
"What I Saw" Mud Luscious Press Chapbook March 2009
"Guilty" Burst March 2009
"Just" Dogzplot February 2009
"Set Up" Dogzplot January 2009
"How I Didn't Write About the War" Stand Magazine Winter 2009
"They Never Showed" Midnight Times Winter 2009
"But Is It Irony" Epicenter: A Literary Magazine Winter 2009
"Mattress King" Epicenter: A Literary Magazine Winter 2009
"To the End of Things" NANO Fiction Winter 2009
"Even Angels" Writers Advice January 2009
"Maybe This One" Word Riot January 2009
"Whenever We Had Milk" Quick Fiction Volume 14, December 2008
"Something Else" elimae December 2008
"The Union Forever" Wigleaf December 2008
"Sentience" Concho River Review December 2008
"Kat" 34th Parallel December 2008
"Out Walking In" Ilya's Honey December 2008
"Out of Love" Euphony Journal: Poetry & Prose at the University of Chicago December 2008
"New Balls" Dogzplot December 2008
"They Don't Last" Barbaric Yawp December 2008
"Skip, Patch, Eye, Brownie, Chalk" Cricket Online Review December 2008
"In Some Way Extraordinary" 34th Parallel October 2008
"Translating Her" Soundings Fall 2008
"Tiniest Things" 971 Menu September 2008
"Suddenly" Kent State University's The Listening Eye, Fall 2008
"Blank" elimae September 2008
"When It Counts" elimae September 2008
"The Red-Headed Stepchild" Wild Violet Fall 2008
"Morton Bonsey" 3:AM Magazine Summer 2008
"Patterns" upstreet, a literary magazine, Vol. 4, Summer 2008
"The Characters Deleted from Stories" Keyhole Magazine Summer 2008
"Dark Sky Parked" Dark Sky Magazine, Issue 8.8 July 2008
"Mattress King" Literary Mama Father's Day 2008
"Just Like Flies" Phantasmagoria Spring 2008
"Against It Bent Pin Quarterly Summer 2008
"The Mechanical Arm" Underground Voices Spring 2008
"Elsewhere" Northwoods Journal, Summer 2008
"Like Two Blue Stars" 94 Creations, Ink Summer 2008
"Let the Wind Have It" Ginosko Literary Journal 6th Edition, Spring 2008
"What About It" American Drivel Review Autumn 2007
"Revisions" Hunger Mountain, Spring 2007
"Facing Extinction" Hunger Mountain, Spring 2007
"The Real" Hunger Mountain, Spring 2007
"For Certain" Clackamas Literary Review Volume X 2006
"What-If World" Vestal Review January 2007, Issue 28
"Behind the Butterflies" The Binnacle Spring 2008
"To the End" Under Hwy 99 Spring 2008
"Father Nature" SNReview January 2008
"Unhurtable Me" Xelas Magazine March 2008
"For This Moment to Arrive" Storyglossia December 2007
"Shine on Lonely Girls" Write Side Up December 2007
"The Midnight Side of Medium" Ascent Aspirations Magazine November 2007
"Guy that Roller-Skates on Stage" Blood Orange Review October 2007
"Fiction Only" Paradigm • The Vintage Issue Rain Press Publishing, October 2007
"Signifiers" BlazeVOX Publishing Fall 2007
"The Question of Nymphs" Wilderness House Literary Review, Fall 2007
"You Want" Taproot Review Summer 2007
"Him" Home Planet News Winter 2008
"Too-Rough Fingers of the World" Raving Dove November 2007
"Hint of the Void" Word Riot September 2007
"Signed, Your Mom" The Crucible Fall 2005
"The Bone Orchard" Front & Centre Summer 2006
"Creatures of the Night" Slow Trains Journal Spring 2007
"What It Wants" Down in the Dirt Magazine Spring 2007
"Bigger than You" Rose & Thorn Spring 2007
"A Diminished Thing" Marginalia: A Literary Review April 2006
"Destroyer" Noo Journal Issue 3 Winter 2006
"Tumbling After" Metal Scratches Fall 2005
"A Perhaps Hand" LBF Books — Writers Post Journal April 2006
"One Hitter" LBF Books — Writers Post Journal September 2005
"To Say Something" Illya's Honey Winter 2006
"So Close" Ink Pot #4
"So Close" Lit Pot Vol. 3 No. 9
"Little Magpie" Ink Pot #5
"Not Ugly Enough" The Citizen June 2004
"What Witches Want" The Citizen June 2005
"Wrong" Blood Lotus Summer 2007
"So Much Depends Upon" Ramble Underground Spring 2007
"More Love From the World" Boston Literary Magazine Winter 2006
"Good Kid" Kaleidowhirl Autumn Issue 2006
"Gravitas" Dispatches December 2006
"Busy…with Death" Right Hand Pointing #12 August 2006
"Like Suzanne" Static Movement August 2006
"Rebecca, Really" The Angler Spring 2006
"The Lemurian" Juked Spring 2006
"Pink Teddy" Ghoti Magazine #5
"Rape of Conversion" Per Contra Winter 2006
"Concrete Shelter" Per Contra Winter 2006
"Hannah" Per Contra Winter 2006
"Feathers & Rocks" Staccato December 2005
"The Shut-In" HeavyGlow #3 December 2005
"Gemma Instead A Long Story Short
"Invisible Fences" The New Yinzer March 2005
"Instead" Eclectica v9 n3 August 2005
"Barrie Blonz" Hobart's: The Baseball Issue 2005
"There It Is" Monkeybicycle April 2005
"Swollen" Mad Hatters' Review February 2005
"Samantha's Dream" GGS (Web & Print)
"A Plane to Catch" FriGG January 2005
"Comfortable" FriGG January 2005
"Waiting for the Punchline" FriGG January 2005
"Sucking Up the Sun" FriGG January 2005
"Toward the End Zone, Rabbit Head in Hand" FriGG January 2005
"Literally" Word Riot May 2004
"Charlie Brown's Run" The Glut June 2004
"Soccer Dad" Hobart's May 2004
"Spam" Edifice Wrecked July 2004
"The Radioactive Chicken or the Egg?" SmokeLong Quarterly #5
"Being Frank" SmokeLong Quarterly #7
"Metaphoric Puppy Love" Rumble September 2004
"Great Grandmother Gorilla" Toasted Cheese September 2004
"WildWoman FiftyCents" Ascent Magazine Fall 2004
"Not Seeking or Even Counting" Thieves Jargon December 2004
"An Easy Belief" Ink Magazine April 2004
"The Poet Laureate of Potter County" Flasher's Dozen
Poetry
"Incorrect" Bonfire 3: An International Conflagration Fall 2005
"Like Black" Bonfire 3: An International Conflagration Fall 2005
"On My End" Bonfire 3: An International Conflagration Fall 2005
"The Weather Report" Bonfire 3: An International Conflagration Fall 2005
Randall Brown has four poems printed here. ‘Incorrect’ is wonderful – a counterpunch to a lecturer who rebukes Sylvia Plath for appropriating Holocaust tropes for herself. Brown has a lot of fun with the wisdom of literary critics and Freud’s Oedipus complex. ‘On My End’ is quite different, a painful account of a father’s debility.
"In Box" Mouseion: Handprint Press, UK Spring 2005
"Flies Without Hooks" Mad Poets Review Spring 2005
Essays and Reviews
"Making Flash Count" The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field (Rose Metal Press, 2009).
"Tragic Urgency in (Very) Short Fiction" Canadian Writers' Collective • Guest Essayist September 2008
Review of Patrick Kelling's "Popping Frisco" in Five Star Literary Stories, August 2008
"The Definitive Flash" Smokelong Quarterly May 2008
"Smoking with Randall Brown, by Randall Brown" Smokelong Quarterly Fall 2007
"Showcase: Cristina Henriquez's "The Baby" in the Big Ugly Review Spring 2007
"Dumpsites: On Flash Narrative" Per Contra Summer 2006
"Awww!" SmokeLong Quarterly Features
Flash Fiction Review Myfanwy Collins' "Remember" SmokeLong Quarterly Editor Review Series, July 2006
"Not Quite There Yet" GSG (Print & Web)
"The Something That Isn't" GSG (Print & Web)
Education & Professional Experience
2006 • MFA in Fiction Writing, Vermont College
Intensive semester study with Douglas Glover, Pamela Painter, Abby Frucht, and Nance Van Winckel. Additional workshop study with Clint McCown, Lary Sutin, Ellen Lesser, Bob Abel, Chris Noel, Xu Xi, and Diane Lefer.
In the July issue of Atlantic Monthly, writer Edward J. Delaney named the Vermont College Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program among the top five low-residency MFA programs in the United States. The program shares its title with those at Bennington College, Pacific University, Antioch University, and Warren Wilson College.
2008 • Post-MFA Picture Book Certification Vermont College
Intensive semester study with Kathi Appelt. Workshop studies included sessions with Jane Yolen and 2007 Theodore Geisel Medal Winner Laura McGee Kvasnosky.
2002 • Master of Education Cabrini College
1992 • B.S. in Secondary Education Bloomsburg University
1987 • B.A. in English Tufts University
currently • Lead Editor with SmokeLong Quarterly
SLQ recently published W.P. Kinsella, Natalie Goldberg, Dan Chaon, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Sherrie Flick, Robert Shapard, Melanie Rae Thon, Tom Hazuka, Katrina Denza, Pia Ehrhardt, Claudia Smith, Mary Miller, Lesley Weston, Robin Slick, Teresa Boyar, Jeff Landon, Joseph Young, Nance Knauer, Daphne Buter, Jim Tomlinson, Jai Clare, Jennifer A. Howard, Girja Tropp, and many other exceptional writers. For the month of August 2008, SLQ had nearly 100,000 page views! Also asked by Norton Anthology to participate in their flash fiction anthology New Sudden Fiction. Stefani Nellen's "The Attraction of Asphalt" was selected to appear in Dzanc Books' Best of the Web 2008. Recent articles include Awww!—an essay on flash fiction—and Ten Essentials of Reading for Writers based upon an interview with Zoetrope Virtual Studio's top reviewer, Myfanwy Collins. Also be sure to check out the "Smoking With Series": Guest Editor Katrina Denza, Guest Editor Joseph Young, Artistic Director Marty Ison, Guest Editor Myfanwy Collins, Guest Editor Matt Bell, Guest Editor Alicia Gifford, Guest Editor Bob Arter, and Retiring Fiction Editor Kathy Fish. Flash writers are invited to apply for The Kathy Fish Fellowship.
currently • Adjunct Instructor at Rosemont College
Teach Creative Writing Seminar.
currently • Adjunct Instructor at Saint Joseph's University
Teach accelerated fiction workshop and introductory writing, literature, and poetry courses, such as The Craft of Language.
1993-2007 • Teacher of English Jenkintown High School
Created, developed, and taught the following courses:
• Advanced Placement English Literature & Comp
• Junior American Literature
• Freshman Introduction to Literary Vision
• Sophomore Introduction to Rhetoric and Voice
• Film Studies
• Creative Writing I and II
• Journalism
Contributing Editor, Gator Springs Gazette, Fall/Winter 2004
Guest Editor, SmokeLong Quarterly, Issue #6
