An Online Literary Journal for Stories, Poems, Music & Art
  • FB.png
  • twitter.png
  • blogger.png

Why We Chose It: "Coming Clean" by Hanna Rosenheimer

April 18, 2018

Each month, one of our genre editors will discuss what made them select a certain piece from the current issue. This month, Maureen Langloss elaborates on why she accepted "Coming Clean." 

 

There were many stages of falling in love with Hanna Rosenheimer’s story, “Coming Clean.”

The first spark: Hanna’s voice. Vivid. Surprising. Honest. Funny. Emotional yet matter-of-fact. Confident yet full of self-doubt. Voice is the best way to flirt with Split Lip editors.

Second: the subject matter. I was excited to come across a story involving women in a lesbian relationship just being. Having the same baggage and using each other and enjoying each other and working shit out together just like couples do in straight stories.

Third: the juxtapositions. Surprising juxtapositions turn me on. Especially when they aren’t totally explained, when they are a bit askew, when the reader has to fill in the gaps. Think Amy Leach. Think Maggie Nelson. In Hanna’s story, we see two threads pop into the narrative that we don’t expect: the teacher/student relationship in her old school and her stalker’s suicide. Neither of these anecdotes completely flow with the story, but they co-exist so perfectly with the primary relationship between Ivy and the narrator, acting as foils to it. Yes, they are backstory. But they also take us some place new. They make us consider the build-up and crud that all humans carry with them from old relationships/experiences into new ones. They make us consider the various ways and degrees by which people take advantage of each other. If you’re wondering, another story we published that I love for its intriguing juxtapositions is Josh McColough’s “Meteor.”

Fourth: the drain metaphor. Yes, stories with overarching metaphors can be tricky. Overdone. Underdone. But we thought Hanna’s was perfect. Gritty. Funny. Poignant. Slightly absurd. Full of symbolic possibility. We love how she turned that tangle of hair at the end into something meaningful—beautiful even. In case you missed it, Brett Stuckel achieved a similar feat with his metaphoric toilet paper in “Loss Prevention.”

Fifth: some amazing sentences! Cue: “My shower’s so gross I’ve been hooking up with people to use theirs.”

Sixth: Hanna herself. At Split Lip, we do not read stories blind. We actively look for new faces. Hanna is a sophomore in college! She’s a math major! Yep, I said math. She writes about internalized homophobia and lesbian identity. When she sent us her story, she had not yet been published outside of undergrad publications. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with and promote a talented young writer as she embarks on what we think will be a brilliant writing career.

 

—Maureen Langloss, Flash Fiction Editor

 

*****

 

Want this in your inbox once a month? Sign up for our monthly newsletter!

Please reload

Featured Posts

Tarantula: A Guest Post from Amy Stuber

March 21, 2019

From the Writing Desk of: Chloe N. Clark

March 5, 2019

Announcing Split Lip's Best New Poets nominees!

March 22, 2019

1/4
Please reload

Recent Posts

The Fam Roundup: July 2019

August 5, 2019

Just One Thing with Alex Simand

July 12, 2019

"With an open mind": an interview with Katherine Joyce

July 10, 2019

Please reload

Archive

August 2019 (1)

July 2019 (5)

June 2019 (8)

May 2019 (6)

April 2019 (7)

March 2019 (8)

February 2019 (8)

January 2019 (7)

December 2018 (6)

November 2018 (10)

October 2018 (10)

September 2018 (10)

August 2018 (13)

July 2018 (10)

June 2018 (12)

May 2018 (11)

April 2018 (10)

March 2018 (8)

February 2018 (8)

January 2018 (11)

December 2017 (8)

November 2017 (13)

October 2017 (11)

September 2017 (9)

August 2017 (14)

July 2017 (10)

June 2017 (11)

May 2017 (6)

April 2017 (5)

Please reload

Search By Tags

19 Rounds

Fightin' Words

From the Writing Desk Of

Just One Thing

Now Playing

Real World: Editors

why we chose it

Please reload

Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square