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The short, short story,a legacy from Florida State's Jerry Stern
By Margaret Leonard
Editor in Chief, Florida State Times
Before he died of cancer in March, Jerome Stern edited MicroFiction, a little book of short, short stories. Each was 300 words or less.
Ten years before, Stern, director of the writing program at Florida State, had started the "World's Best Short Short Story Contest."
The contest caught on: NPR broadcast the winners; literary magazines began to publish "lack of length" stories; entries poured in; and W.W. Norton accepted the book for publication.
Stern came to FSU as an instructor in 1966 after earning a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
An immensely popular teacher and mentor to young writers, Stern ran the writing program at FSU, conducted writing workshops, wrote regular commentaries for National Public Radio, edited the books page and wrote a column for the Tallahassee Democrat, wrote for national magazines and taught writing and a course in popular culture.
In 1990, he published Making Shapely Fiction, a book of advice and commentary on writing that drew high praise from the New York Times.
"It's a book that fits my short attention span," he said of Making Shapely Fiction, which is organized in small bites rather than the traditional textbook style of long chapters containing long paragraphs with long sentences and big words.
In 1993, Stern and Gary Monroe photographed and wrote Florida Dreams, a travelogue of eccentric, early and off-beat attractions, which was published by the FSU Museum of Fine Arts.
Before he died, Stern started a fund for creative writing students.
The address is Jerry Stern Creative Writing Fund, FSU English Department, 406 Williams Building, Tallahassee, Fla. 32306-1036.
MicroFiction contains stories by 53 writers, 10 of whom are students, graduates or faculty at FSU. Stern himself wrote the story Morning News which is reprinted here.