What do you think?
Rate this book
The First Line, Volume 21 Issue 1
The First Line is an American literary magazine founded in 1999 by David LaBounty, Robin LaBounty, and Jeff Adams. It is a quarterly journal based in Plano, Texas. The premise of the magazine is simple: each story begins with the same first line. This is the spring 2019 issue, celebrating twenty years in print.
106 pages, Paperback
Published March 20, 2019
1 person want to read
About the author
David LaBounty
20 books1 followerDavid LaBounty's plays have been performed in classrooms, cafeterias, and on main stages across the country. His fiction and essays have appeared in numerous children's and general interest magazines, and he has reviewed books for national and daily newspapers. He also is the author of two perzines: The Vellum Underground and Bookstores and Baseball. David runs Blue Cubicle Press, where he publishes the award-winning and internationally recognized literary journals Workers Write! and The First Line.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2022
The First Line is a print and online journal publishing flash and microfiction stories that must use a provided first line. The journal publishes four times a year. This collection celebrates twenty years of The First Line by having writers revisit some of the first lines from the past.
The Editor's note about how this issue was conceived and laid out did not make sense to me. I'm also not sure why an issue designed to celebrate twenty years only took stories from 1999 through 2003. Maybe stories from the later years are included in subsequent issues from 2019. But there's nothing in the Editorial note to state or explain if this is the case.
Most of the stories are short, enjoyable reads. As a writer of flash and micro, I took lessons from some of these stories on what to do and from others, what not to do. I wouldn't go so far as to say these are award winning stories but on the whole, they aren't bad. My favorites were, "Regina v Weird Sisters", "The Grand Finale", "Exit, Stage Left", and "Old Friends".
The beauty of The First Line is that, by providing a pre-scripted opening story line that must be used, it offers writers the challenge of climbing into a box in order to think and write their way out. Great stories can come from this challenge. If you enjoy such a writing challenge or are curious about what sort of stories develop from the process, check out The First Line at https://www.thefirstline.com/index.htm. I think any reader of short fiction will find something they enjoy from the smorgasbord of stories living there.
The Editor's note about how this issue was conceived and laid out did not make sense to me. I'm also not sure why an issue designed to celebrate twenty years only took stories from 1999 through 2003. Maybe stories from the later years are included in subsequent issues from 2019. But there's nothing in the Editorial note to state or explain if this is the case.
Most of the stories are short, enjoyable reads. As a writer of flash and micro, I took lessons from some of these stories on what to do and from others, what not to do. I wouldn't go so far as to say these are award winning stories but on the whole, they aren't bad. My favorites were, "Regina v Weird Sisters", "The Grand Finale", "Exit, Stage Left", and "Old Friends".
The beauty of The First Line is that, by providing a pre-scripted opening story line that must be used, it offers writers the challenge of climbing into a box in order to think and write their way out. Great stories can come from this challenge. If you enjoy such a writing challenge or are curious about what sort of stories develop from the process, check out The First Line at https://www.thefirstline.com/index.htm. I think any reader of short fiction will find something they enjoy from the smorgasbord of stories living there.
Displaying 1 of 1 review