A Newsletter of Humorous Writing

For September 23-29, 2020, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. This week we're using this space to remind you that if you have an old favorite piece that you love, we want you to share it with us! Just fill out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter. We've had a lot of awesome submissions already, and we hope you'll keep 'em coming!

What We Enjoyed This Week

Backstories for the Stuffed Animals in Simulated Baseball Audience by Dave Anderson (Points in Case)   The specifics in this one are very fun and VERY specific and--without giving too much away--it also has a surprising twist that turns it into to a kind of short humor equivalent of Snake Eyes with a splash of La Jetée.

I’m Sorry, But We Can No Longer Be Friends Because I’m Pregnant And You’re Turning Into An Alligator by Libby Marshall (The Belladonna) Another bunch of great specifics--but really we're just suckers for any piece that involves a witch's curse.

Study Finds You Can Just Buy a Toblerone if You Want To by Dima Kronfeld (Reductress) One of the joys of short humor is when a piece can capture something you've experienced, but never gave much (or any) thought to. This piece does a great job exploring the very relatable feeling of dissonance when you realize, "Oh yeah, that thing I think of as a special treat is actually very accessible and is something I could just get for myself if I wanted." 

An Old Favorite

The setup is simple and clear and the premise plays out quickly and delightfully, with some fantastic turns of phrase ("left with nothing to do except kick ass until they’re finished washing my car"). Also a great use of semicolons!

Do you have an Old Favorite of your own? Let us know by filling out this form and we may run your pick in a future edition of the newsletter. 

Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show

There are just THREE spots left in Luke's "Where to Start With Short Humor Writing" workshop. Snag one while you can!

See you next week!

@lukevburns & @jamesfolta

We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.

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If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!