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How to Make a Window Snake
Three winning flash fiction novellas from the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award demonstrate the scope and range of this increasingly popular genre.
"How to Make a Window Snake by Charmaine Wilkerson... creates a brilliant picture window through which we see a loving but deeply wounded family trying to survive more tragedy.
A Safer Way to Fall by Joanna Campbell... stakes are high and violence becomes a reliable companion. One realises that there simply is no safe way to fall.
Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping by Ingrid Jendrzejewski... beautifully detailed portraits, thrusts us into a world of emotional limbo, watching the asymmetry of a couple grappling with mismatched wishes and obsessions."
Meg Pokrass, writer, poet, editor, tutor. Author of Bird Envy, Damn Sure Right, The Dog Looks Happy Upside Down and Here, Where We Live.
"How to Make a Window Snake by Charmaine Wilkerson... creates a brilliant picture window through which we see a loving but deeply wounded family trying to survive more tragedy.
A Safer Way to Fall by Joanna Campbell... stakes are high and violence becomes a reliable companion. One realises that there simply is no safe way to fall.
Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping by Ingrid Jendrzejewski... beautifully detailed portraits, thrusts us into a world of emotional limbo, watching the asymmetry of a couple grappling with mismatched wishes and obsessions."
Meg Pokrass, writer, poet, editor, tutor. Author of Bird Envy, Damn Sure Right, The Dog Looks Happy Upside Down and Here, Where We Live.
- GenresFictionFlash Fiction
120 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
5 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Charmaine Wilkerson
9 books3,276 followersCharmaine Wilkerson is an American writer who has lived in the Caribbean and is based in Italy. She is a former journalist and recovered marathon runner whose award-winning short stories can be found in various UK and US anthologies and magazines. Black Cake (2022) was her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 13, 2018
I loved this book. I put it in my purse, and took it with me wherever I went, hoping to be able to read a page or two in between.
The book consists of three separate novellas-in-flash.
Charmaine Wilkerson’s novella uncoils just like the snake in the title of the book. The author repeats motives and scenes from different perspectives, each of them enriching the reality our perception of what truly happened. The story, told and retold from different points of view in a masterful way that doesn’t feel repetitive, unravels the family secrets. It’s a poignant account of a tragedy, and its aftermath. But there is also hope, granted by the unreserved love the remaining family members treat each other with. ‘How to Make a Window Snake’ is a masterpiece.
Joanna Campbell’s ‘A Safer Way to Fall’ is a story you lose yourself into. Each flash is like a sublime little gem, polished to perfection, its different facets reflecting various aspects of a reality. This novella-in-flash spans over a lifetime and concerns itself with trauma: the death of a sibling, an abusive father, war. The main character grapples to recover, while a second narrative thread concerns itself with a German’s family trauma of separation, after the Wall is erected. But in the end, the main character experiences the unforgiving nature of time. While everything dissolves around him, Johnny finds the safer way to fall.
Ingrid Jendrzejewski’s ‘Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping’ presents the changing dynamics within a couple when they have a baby. The author gambles on (mostly) skilfully crafted micros, and wins. The author’s understanding of the parents’ psychology is staggering — I’m sure many a mother will recognise own their patters of behaviour they ‘displayed’ when their babies were small. This thorough examination is brought to life by staggering, cracking details. For instance, the couple’s differences are presented to us as clashes of views regarding cutlery, the colour of the Golden Gate Bridge, and Moby Dick. Ingrid Jendrzejewski is a master of oblique storytelling.
The book consists of three separate novellas-in-flash.
Charmaine Wilkerson’s novella uncoils just like the snake in the title of the book. The author repeats motives and scenes from different perspectives, each of them enriching the reality our perception of what truly happened. The story, told and retold from different points of view in a masterful way that doesn’t feel repetitive, unravels the family secrets. It’s a poignant account of a tragedy, and its aftermath. But there is also hope, granted by the unreserved love the remaining family members treat each other with. ‘How to Make a Window Snake’ is a masterpiece.
Joanna Campbell’s ‘A Safer Way to Fall’ is a story you lose yourself into. Each flash is like a sublime little gem, polished to perfection, its different facets reflecting various aspects of a reality. This novella-in-flash spans over a lifetime and concerns itself with trauma: the death of a sibling, an abusive father, war. The main character grapples to recover, while a second narrative thread concerns itself with a German’s family trauma of separation, after the Wall is erected. But in the end, the main character experiences the unforgiving nature of time. While everything dissolves around him, Johnny finds the safer way to fall.
Ingrid Jendrzejewski’s ‘Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping’ presents the changing dynamics within a couple when they have a baby. The author gambles on (mostly) skilfully crafted micros, and wins. The author’s understanding of the parents’ psychology is staggering — I’m sure many a mother will recognise own their patters of behaviour they ‘displayed’ when their babies were small. This thorough examination is brought to life by staggering, cracking details. For instance, the couple’s differences are presented to us as clashes of views regarding cutlery, the colour of the Golden Gate Bridge, and Moby Dick. Ingrid Jendrzejewski is a master of oblique storytelling.
October 30, 2024
These three novellas-in-flash are a really interesting trio. They take very different approaches and all are very readable.
‘How to make a window snake’ describes a family and how they cope (or don’t) with tragedy and grief. It is sensitively written and clever in the way it gradually uncovers truths as you read. I particularly liked the storyline of the note and how reading more of the flashes gave the reader more insight.
‘A safer way to fall’ is a heartbreaking story revolving around one man, from his childhood with a violent father through to his service in the war then his marriage which ultimately fails, and his awkward relationship with his adoptive daughter. I read it twice, back to back, and the second time hit even harder.
‘Things I dream about when I’m not sleeping’ was my favourite of the three. The flashes are all quite varied and some are extremely short, and they excel in describing relationships and the small differences between people that can become insurmountable. Many of them really resonated with me.
A very enjoyable anthology!
‘How to make a window snake’ describes a family and how they cope (or don’t) with tragedy and grief. It is sensitively written and clever in the way it gradually uncovers truths as you read. I particularly liked the storyline of the note and how reading more of the flashes gave the reader more insight.
‘A safer way to fall’ is a heartbreaking story revolving around one man, from his childhood with a violent father through to his service in the war then his marriage which ultimately fails, and his awkward relationship with his adoptive daughter. I read it twice, back to back, and the second time hit even harder.
‘Things I dream about when I’m not sleeping’ was my favourite of the three. The flashes are all quite varied and some are extremely short, and they excel in describing relationships and the small differences between people that can become insurmountable. Many of them really resonated with me.
A very enjoyable anthology!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2019
Charmaine Wilkerson’s prize winning novella-in-flash, How to Make a Window Snake, is a spinning constellation that orbits one family’s grief, circling around and around what cannot be said…or forgotten. Her narrative is crisp, dense and deep–the entire iceberg under the water. Paired with the two runners-up for the Bath Novella-in-Flash award, A Safer Way to Fall by Joanna Campbell, and Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping by Ingrid Jendrzejewski, How to Make a Window Snake is a trifeca of a book and an incredible showcase of the form.
January 18, 2020
Fantastic examples of the novella-in-flash form. I loved the variety of themes and structures. This is a genre where risks can be taken, and it combines succinctness of language with creativity very well. There seems to be a real sense of freedom.
September 28, 2021
Three great examples of Novella-in-flash. My favourite one was Charmaine Wilkerson's How To Make a Window Snake: I loved how she developed the different characters, and the sense of plot made by the sequence of single stand-alone flashes.
July 29, 2017
The three novellas-in-flash that make up this book are all fantastic. Read it now!
November 3, 2022
I really like it
July 20, 2025
I loved the variety of stories and prose from the three authors featured in this book. The stories range in length - all the perfect size for the theme.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews