Stuart Dybek

“Prose doesn’t afford the rhyme scheme and lineation of a classic sonnet, but it is possible, especially in a prose poem or a piece of flash fiction to emulate the “turn,” one of the most beautiful moves in poetry. The use of transition is another compressive device that is very much at the heart of the short story. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the art of transition is the art of the short story. The jumps a story makes and the speed at which it develops can contribute enormously to compression. Borges is a great example of that. I could have answered in a more compressed way simply by quoting Elmore Leonard, who is obviously channeling Hemingway, in stating, ‘I try to leave out the part that people skim.’” 

- Stuart Dybek, The Rumpus