Sam Rasnake wrote "Dialogue of Self and Little Boy/Little Girl, or Not" for the challenge at Fictionaut:
What inspired your story?
The Fictionaut challenge for the project was the catalyst. My normal routine for writing involves pen and journal, but this piece was written entirely at the keyboard. That is a rarity for me. Just moments before I read the challenge, I’d been at the Poetry Foundation website and noticed a link to William Butler Yeats. I don’t remember the poem that was listed – just Yeats’ name. I made the connection between the project challenge and the title of a poem by Yeats: “A Dialogue of Self and Soul”. I made the easy segue to my own title of “Dialogue of Self and Little Boy/Little Girl, or Not”. The words in my title – and not Yeats' poem – triggered the form for my own flash. The story just fell into place.
Why the cause is important to you?
Far too many children have become casualties, statistics, blurbs in newspapers. World-wide, thousands die daily from poverty alone. According to ABC, nearly 2,000 children in the U.S. die each year as a result of abuse or neglect. One article I read stated that 1 in every 58 children in the U.S. is a victim of child abuse and neglect. And we’re a world leader? If we consider the numbers globally, the impact becomes even more staggering. A tragedy.
Tell us a little bit about you and where to find your writing.
Sam Rasnake’s works, receiving five nominations for the Pushcart Prize, have appeared in journals such asOCHO, Big Muddy, MiPOesias, > kill author, BLIP: The New Mississippi Review, Literal Latté, Wigleaf, Poets / Artists, Portland Review, Connotation Press, Poem, BluePrint Review, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Poetry Midwest, and Emprise Review. His work has been included in the Best of the Web 2009 anthology (Dzanc Books), BOXCAR Poetry Review Anthology 2, andDogzplot Flash Fiction 2011. He edits Blue Fifth Review, an online journal of poetry, flash, and art, is chapbook editor for Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and serves as a judge for the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, University of California, Berkeley. Rasnake is the author of one collection: Necessary Motions(Sow’s Ear Press), and three chapbooks: Religions of the Blood (Pudding House Press), Lessons in Morphology (GOSS183), and Inside a Broken Clock (Finishing Line Press).
Web page: http://samofthetenthousandthings.wordpress.com/
Anthologies to benefit PROTECT, The National Association to Protect Children and Children 1st.
Sam, the statistics say it all - it's an epidemic. Hopefully our efforts can help just a little.
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