Our first Fictional Café Writing Contest is underway. Winners will get to see their work appear in our first Fictional Café Anthology, in both a print paperback book and an e-book. And if you get your work in between now and July 4th…read on. You can click here for the long version of the rules, but here’s the short version. Use the link above to submit your story Unless it’s poetry, art, or flash fiction your tale should be from 2k to 8k words It costs $10 to submit Submissions close on Friday, July 14 Starting Monday, July 17 we run head-to-head elections to see who wins each genre category Winners of 1st through 3rd place go in a print anthology. They win glory, honor, and two free copies! As a special incentive, the first 10…

Continue reading →

We baristas have had many fun, innovative publishing experiences here at FC over the past four years. We thank each of you for becoming a member, and are grateful to everyone who has contributed their creativity. We can’t keep the FC going without you! I want to express my personal gratitude to Rachael and Simran for their pen pal exchange, published here in May and June. These two talented writers had never met one another, yet they both responded to our request to embark upon that old-fashioned notion of writing a pen pal – updated, of course, for the internet era. I loved reading their exchanges. They wrote from the heart, sharing many personal feelings amid their experiences – something we as a culture don’t do enough of anymore. Here is the last photo we…

Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: Since May, we’ve had the opportunity to read and share the fascinating and insightful correspondence between two American Study Abroad students: Rachael Allen, who attends Bowdoin College in Maine, studying in Bologna, Italy, and Simran P. Gupta, a student at Simmons College in Boston, studying in Paris, France. [Full disclosure: Simran is our poetry barista here at the Café.] Once our pen pals were both back Stateside and had a little time to recover and readjust, Mike Mavilia, our managing editor, and I invited them to dinner at Dumpling Daughter in Weston, Massachusetts. A lively conversation ensued about the three differing cultures, dining habits, driving, bicycling, the comparative pace of life…and the longing to return, to return soon, to stay longer. The photos taken at our dinner accompany this last exchange. We want…

Continue reading →

Editor’s note: This is the last exchange between Simran and Rachael as they end their Study Abroad semesters. You can find their previous pen pal exchanges here, here and here. The Sacre Coeur Basilica image above is courtesy Simran. The Basilica di San Domenico image is courtesy Rachael. Photo montage courtesy Grace Chu. But wait! There’s one last installment to follow, when they write each other about what it’s like to be back home. Coming soon. ** April 17 Hi Sim! Oh good luck with your papers and everything. I hope you enjoy the last few weeks! My program ends in the middle of May, so I’m not quite at that stage of thinking about the end yet. I love this question about being alone, actually because it’s definitely been a significant and changing part of my time…

Continue reading →

Although I’m sure they would secretly prefer the Fictional Cafe for a cup of java and creativity, Rachael and Simran have found local coffee hangouts in Paris and Bologna—and have found them interestingly different in several respects from their American counterparts. Here’s part three of their pen-palling. ** April 10 Hi Sim! Sorry for the delay—I was gone this weekend on a program trip to Venice. (If you end up visiting Italy, definitely see Venice! There are many tourists, of course, but there are also these beautiful hidden canals, one of which has this old bookstore overflowing with books—and sometimes with water.) I have similar feelings about the energy of the students in Bologna. And I too, especially since this is a university town, thought that café culture would be a big part of the city….

Continue reading →