Welcome to the home page of writer and university professor Mark Crimmins. Mark has been publishing short stories and flash fictions since 2010. As a lecturer and Assistant Professor, Mark taught American Literature, Contemporary American and British Fiction, Twentieth Century Literature, Transatlantic Modernism and Postmodernism, and Literary Theory at the University of Toronto from 1999 to 2016. Mark grew up in Manchester, England, where he attended Canon Slade Grammar School. He has lived for long periods in five countries: The United Kingdom, The United States, Japan, Canada, and China. After undergraduate studies in Utah, Mark received an MA in English (1993) and a PhD in Twentieth Century Literature (1999) from the University of Toronto. His peer-reviewed academic articles have been published in the specialist Saul Bellow Journal. His fiction has been published widely in the United States and around the world. Three of his published short stories have been nominated for Pushcart Fiction Prizes: In 2014, "Incident on Abiko Street" was nominated by the editors of Cha magazine (Hong Kong); in 2018, "Benton City and the End of the World" was nominated by the editors of Eclectica magazine; and in 2022, "A Tiny Island" won the Editor's Choice Award for Fiction and a Pushcart Prize nomination for its appearance in Kansas magazine Inscape. Mark's Osaka story "Incident on Abiko Street" was also nominated for a 2015 Best of the Net Award and a 2015 Million Writers Award. Mark's Hokkaido story "Shiretoko" was nominated for a 2015 Silver Pen Authors Association Write Well Award by the editors of Berlin magazine Trainless. Mark moved to Hong Kong in 2013 and has been working in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China, since 2016. H e is currently an Associate Professor of English Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. His first book, Sydneyside Reflections, a travel memoir, was published on 10 June 2020 by Adelaide's Everytime Press.
Important Notices
MY FLASH FICTION 'WORKEROLICK" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A BEST OF NET AWARD BY BURNGINGWORD.
MARK'S EMAIL ADDRESS: markdcrimmins@gmail.com. His University of Toronto email is obsolete.
Mark launched his YouTube Channel, MARK CRIMMINS WRITER, on 1 January 2022. This is a link to the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJScV3UzjBATotPqvkP4tQ/videos
LATEST UPDATES: 02 December 2024 in Shenzhen
2024 UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
My short story "Whir Whir" has been accepted for publication in Saint Louis magazine River Styx's Post Human Issue.
My short story "The Legacy" has been accepted for publication by the Bookends Review.
YEAR BY YEAR PUBLICATIONS:
2024
"Hello Columbus" was published in University of Baltimore's Welter Magazine, Digital Issue: Fall 2024, on 2 December 2024.
"Truth & Illusion, Baby: A review of Ashley Honeysett's Fictions" was published in Heavy Feather Review on 2 August 2024.
"Reflections in the Eye of a Condor" was published in California's Reed Magazine [Issue 157] on 17 May 2024.
"The Bridal Veil Falls" was published by Delaware's Broadkill Review on 29 April 2024.
"This Thing for DJs" was published in UK magazine Litro on 26 April 2024.
"A Tumult" was published in Rhode Island magazine The Alembic on 26 April 2024.
"Workerolick" was published in Burningword Literary Journal on 6 April 2024. Nominated for a Best of the Net 2024 award.
"Rhapsody on a Bad Panini" was published in Drunken Boat on 12 March 2024.
2023
"The Woman Who Told Stories" was published in Isotrope on 15 December 2023.
"Shanghai Metro 2019" was published in 45th Parallel Magazine on 2 June 2023.
"A Ride to Remember" was published in Saranac Review on 18 May 2023.
"The Desiderative Infix" was published in Chicago Quarterly Review on 7 April 2023.
"Boy in Electric Blue Parallels" was published in Talking River Review on 21 January 2023.
2022
"Broadway and Montgomery" was published in Avatar Review on 18 September 2022.
"The Argument as Overheard by Gertrude Stein" was published in Permafrost Magazine on 1 September 2022.
"A Tiny Island" was published in Washburn University's Inscape on 24 May 2022.
"Little Baby Bananas" was published in Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art on 27 January 2022.
"Spreader" was published in Cirque Journal on 27 January 2022.
2021
"At Giovanni's" was published in Green Briar Review on 25 December 2021.
"The My Left Leg Chainsaw Massacre" was published in U. of Melbourne's Grattan Press Intermissions on 11 Nov. 2021
"Highway Star" was published in the University of Maine's Sandy River Review on 1 November 2021.
"Woman's Brain Sees Man" was published in South Florida Poetry Journal on 30 October 2021.
"Yam Cakes in the Rain" was published in New York's Cagibi on 4 October 2021. https://cagibilit.com
"The Future is Now," my photoessay about Shenzhen, was published in Amsterdam Quarterly on 21 Sept 2021.
"An Osaka Girl" was published in Flash Fiction Magazine on 18 September 2021.
2020
Sydneyside Reflections, my first book, was published by Adelaide's Everytime Press on 10 June 2020.
"Luoyang Railway Station: A Montage in 100 T-Shirts" was published in Holland's Expanded Field on 12 Dec. 2020.
"The Einstein Effect" was published in Chicago Quarterly Review on 9 December 2020.
"Teotihuacan" was published in Construction Literary Magazine on 15 September 2020.
"Sea of Grass" was published in Cloudbank 14 on 31 July 2020.
"Out in Yakima" was published in Dartmouth College's Lifelines Magazine, Volume 10, on 14 July 2020.
"The Story Behind the Story: The Only Song is the Song of the Self" appeared in Fiction Southeast on 1 April 2020.
"The Watchers and the Watched" was published by Columbia Journal on 12 January 2020.
2019
"Gyroscope" was published in Maryland Literary Review on 9 December 2019.
"Orchard and Claymore" was published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore on 31 October 2019.
"The Only Song is the Song of the Self" was published in Fiction Southeast on 21 October 2019.
"Ffestiniog 1974" was published in Issue 92 of Burningword Literary Journal on 5 October 2019.
"Cross Current Kuala Lumpur" was published in Avatar Review on 11 August 2019.
"Devil's Drop" was published in Pure Slush's anthology, 7 Deadly Sins, Volume 7: Pride, on 31 May 2019.
"Crossing the Guadiana" was published in Oregon's Perceptions: A Magazine of the Arts on 29 May 2019.
"Saint Jean" was published in New Zealand's Flash Frontier on 3 May 2019.
"The Third Lake" was published in an anthology, America's Emerging Writers, on 31 March 2019.
"Chain Letter: An Artifact" was published in Issue 4 of Oregon's 45th Parallel Magazine on 22 March 2019.
"History Repeats and Stories Become Complete" (Review) was published in Heavy Feather Review on 22 February 2019.
"Hong Kong Labyrinth" was republished by FlashFiction.Net (ally of Journal of Compressed Literary Arts) on 29 Jan. 2019.
"The Undertow" was published in Pure Slush's anthology, 7 Deadly Sins, Volume 5: Wrath, on 30 January 2019.
2018
"Keyboard" was published in Pure Slush's anthology, 7 Deadly Sins, Volume 4: Sloth, on 25 November 2018.
"Yanagawa" was republished in Chaleur Magazine on 3 November 2018.
"Cross Section Hanoi" was published in Long Exposure Magazine on 24 October 2018.
"Benton City and the End of the World" was published in Eclectica Magazine on 15 October 2018.
"What Every Man Needs" was published in Pif Magazine in October 2018.
"Recognition on Forty-Seventh Street" was published in Spelk on 26 September 2018.
"Eagle Rock" was published in the Utah's Best Emerging Writers anthology on 18 September 2018.
"The Great Negation" was published in Eurnoia Review on 4 September 2018.
2017
"First and Adams" was published in Flash: The International Short Short Story Magazine on 25 November 2017.
"Into the Valley of Death" was published in Del Sol Review on 12 September 2017.
"Characters Madmen Alone Can Read" was published in Chicago Quarterly Review on 13 June 2017.
2016
"Bear Hug and Snake Bum" was published in Prick of the Spindle on 24 October 2016.
"Padang Besar" was published in Apalachee Review on 15 October 2016.
"The Postcard" was published in Flash: The International Short Short Story Magazine on 23 June 2016.
"Midnight in the Carré St. Louis" was published in Queen's Quarterly on 17 June 2016.
"Rockaway" was published in Cortland Review on 24 May 2016.
"No Time Hath She" was published in Pif Magazine on 1 May 2016.
"Gray" was published in Ellipsis in April 2016.
"City Girl" was published in Eunoia Review on 10 March 2016.
"Showdown in Silicon Alley" was published in Journal of Microliterature on 7 February 2016.
"Washington and Polk" was published in Dogzplot on 11 January 2016.
"About the Author" was published in Blue Fifth Review in May 2016.
2015
"Anomaly" was published in Flash Frontier on 31 December 2015.
"Axis of Combination" was published in Apocrypha & Abstractions on 30 November 2015.
"Last Night at the Dead Goat" was published in Atticus Review on 10 November 2015.
"Thief of Holes" was published in Prick of the Spindle on 30 October 2015.
"I-80 & 49th" was published in Restless Magazine on 14 September 2015.
"Doppelganger" was published in Pif Magazine on 1 September 2015.
"Guangzhou Doubletake" was published in Eastlit on 1 August 2015.
"Awa Odori" was published in Kyoto Journal on 1 May 2015.
"Seokguram" was published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore on 31 January 2015.
2014
"Shiretoko" was published in Trainless Magazine (Berlin) on 28 December 2014.
"Montreal Refraction" was published in Eunoia Review on 29 November 2014.
"Hong Kong Labyrinth" was published in TheNewerYork on 26 Novembrer 2014.
"Revolution of the Bean" was published in Portland Review on 18 October 2014.
"A Sort of Twilight" was published in Penmen Review on 8 October 2014.
"Solstitial" was published in Flash Frontier on 16 September 2014.
"Big Baby Moses" was published in Split Rock Review on 1 September 2014.
"Riding the Rails" was published in Pif Magazine on 1 August 2014.
"Lines Written on a Mall Parking Lot Bench in Mesquire Nevada" was published in Eunoia Review on 24 June 2014.
"Sea of Glass" was published in Columbia Journal on 16 May 2014.
"What Charlie Said" was published in Tampa Review on 1 April 2014.
"Incident on Abiko Street" was published in Cha on 31 March 2014.
"Chricahua" was published in Flash Frontier on 20 February 2014.
"Illusion of Depth" was published in Columbia Journal on 17 February 2014.
"Yanagawa" was published in TheNewerYork on 7 January 2014.
"Perros en la Calle" was published in English Studies in Latin America on 1 January 2014.
HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO MARK'S ONLINE PUBLICATIONS:
"Teotihuacan" in Construction Literary Magazine: http://constructionlitmag.com/architecture/teotihuacan
Awards and Nominations
"Workerolick" has been nominated for a Best of the Net Award by Burningword Magazine in 2024.
"A Tiny Island" won the Editor's Choice Award for fiction at Kansas magazine Inscape in May 2022.
"A Tiny Island" has also won a 2023 Pushcart Fiction Award nomination from Kansas magazine Inscape.
"Benton City and the End of the World" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Eclectica Magazine on 9 December 2018.
"Benton City and the End of the World" was a runner up for Eclectica Magazine's Spotlight Award: 15 October 2018.
"Shiretoko" was nominated byTrainless Magazine for a 2015 Silver Pen Authors Association Write Well Award.
"Incident on Abiko Street" was nominated by Cha for a Best of the Net Award in October 2014.
"Incident on Abiko Street" was nominated for a Pushcart Fiction Prize by Cha in November 2014.
Stories Without Geishas, a collection of Japanese tales, was shortlisted for the 2003 David Wong Fellowship at UEA.
Invited Readings
10 May 2005. Medicine Show Theater, Hell's Kitchen, New York City. I was invited to read "On This Most Perfect Day" and "The Dick Doctor's Wife," my first two published flash fictions (alternate titles: "Yonge and Charles" and "Bay and Charles") at the issue launch party for avant-garde New York journal Happy. These were the first of my Intersections stories to be published. The fabled New York audience did not disappoint. Having my first reading be in New York City was a huge rush.
FICTION PUBLICATION HISTORY: Date, Title, Publication Name
1 1986. "Melton Street."Inscape. [Utah]
2 10 May 2005. "Yonge and Charles." Happy. [New York]
3 10 May 2005. "Bay and Charles." Happy. [New York]
4 1-31 Dec. 2010. "Slimer." Confrontation.
5 9 Oct. 2013. "Cryptograph." TheNewerYork: Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature.
6 1-31 Dec. 2013. "Perros en la Calle." English Studies in Latin America. [Santiago, Chile]
7 7 Jan. 2014. "Yanagawa." TheNewerYork: Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature.
8 17 Feb. 2014. "Illusion of Depth." Columbia Journal.
9 21 Feb. 2014. "Chiricahua." Flash Frontier. [New Zealand]
10 31 Mar. 2014. "Incident on Abiko Street." Cha. [Hong Kong]
11 1 April 2014. "What Charlie Said." Tampa Review.
12 16 May 2014. "Sea of Glass." Columbia Journal.
13 24 June 2014. "Lines Written on a Parking Lot Bench in Mesquite Nevada." Eunoia Review. [Singapore]
14 1 Aug 2014. "Riding the Rails." Pif Magazine.
15 1 Sept 2014. "Big Baby Moses." Split Rock Review.
16 16 Sept 2014. "Solstitial." Flash Frontier. [New Zealand]
17 8 Oct. 2014. "A Sort of Twilight." Penmen Review.
18 19 Oct. 2014. "Revolution of the Bean." Portland Review.
19 26 Nov. 2014. "Hong Kong Labyrinth." TheNewerYork: Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature.
20 29 Nov. 2014. "Montreal Refraction." Eunoia Review. [Singapore]
21 28 Dec. 2014. "Shiretoko." Trainless Magazine. [Berlin]
22 31 Jan. 2015. "Seokguram." Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
23 3 May 2015. "Awa Odori." Kyoto Journal.
24 1 June 2015. "Kunming Train." Gravel Magazine.
25 1 June 2015. "Guangzhou Interlude." Gravel Magazine.
26 18 July 2015. "The Uberdog: A Lecture." Eclectica Magazine.
27 1 Aug. 2015. "Guangzhou Doubletake." Eastlit.
28 1 Sept. 2015. "Doppelganger." Pif Magazine.
29 14 Sept. 2015. "I80 & 49th." Restless Magazine.
30 31 Oct. 2015. "Thief of Holes." Prick of the Spindle.
31 10 Nov. 2015. "Last Night at the Dead Goat." Atticus Review.
32 30 Nov. 2015. "Axis of Combination." Apocrypha & Abstractions.
33 1-31 Dec. 2015. "Anomaly." Flash Frontier [New Zealand].
34 11 Jan. 2016. "Washington and Polk." Dogzplot Flash Fiction.
35 7 Feb. 2016. "Showdown in Silicon Alley." Journal of Microliterature.
36 10 March 2016. "City Girl." Eunoia Review. [Singapore]
37 1-30 April 2016. "Gray." Ellipsis Magazine.
38 1 May 2016. "No Time Hath She." Pif Magazine.
39 5 May 2016. "About the Author." Blue Fifth Review.
40 24 May 2016. "Rockaway." Cortland Review.
41 7 June 2016. "Midnight in the Carre St. Louis." Queen's Quarterly.
42 23 June 2016. "The Postcard." Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine
43 15 Oct. 2016. "Padang Besar." Apalachee Review.
44 24 Oct. 2016. "Bear Hug and Snake Bum." Prick of the Spindle.
45 13 June 2017. "Characters Madmen Alone Can Read." Chicago Quarterly Review.
46 1-30 Sept. 2017. "Into the Valley of Death." Del Sol Review.
47 25 Nov. 2017. "First and Adams." Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.
48 4 Sept. 2018. "The Great Negation." Eunoia Review. [Singapore]
49 18 Sept. 2018. "Eagle Rock." Utah's Best Emerging Writers. [Anthology]
50 26 Sept. 2018. "Recognition on Forty-Seventh Street." Spelk.
51 1-31 Oct. 2018. "What Every Man Needs." Pif Magazine.
52 15 Oct. 2018. "Benton City and the End of the World." Eclectica Magazine.
53 24 Oct. 2018. "Cross Section Hanoi." Long Exposure Magazine.
54 3 Nov. 2018. "Yanagawa." Chaleur Magazine. [Republication]
55 25 Nov. 2018. "Keyboard." Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 4: Sloth. [Pure Slush Anthology, Australia]
56 29 Jan. 2019. "Hong Kong Labyrinth." FlashFiction.Net. [Republication]
57 30 Jan 2019. "The Undertow." Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 5: Anger. [Pure Slush Anthology, Australia]
58 22 March 2019. "Chain Letter: An Artifact." 45th Parallel Magazine.
59 31 March 2019. "The Third Lake." America's Emerging Writers. [Anthology]
60 3 May 2019. "Saint Jean." Flash Frontier. [New Zealand]
61 20 May 2019. "Crossing the Guadiana." Perceptions: A Magazine of the Arts.
62 31 May 2019. "Devil's Drop." Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 7: Pride. [Pure Slush Anthology, Australia]
63 11 Aug. 2019. "Cross Current Kuala Lumpur." Avatar Review.
64 5 Oct. 2019. "Ffestiniog 1974." Burningword Literary Journal.
65 21 Oct. 2019. "The Only Song is the Song of the Self." Fiction Southeast.
66 31 Oct. 2019. "Orchard and Claymore." Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
67 9 Dec. 2019. "Gyroscope." Maryland Literary Review.
68 12 Jan. 2020. "The Watchers and the Watched." Columbia Journal.
69 14 July 2020. "Out in Yakima." Lifelines Magazine.
70 31 July 2020. "Sea of Grass." Cloudbank Magazine.
71 15 Sept. 2020. "Teotihuacan." Construction Literary Magazine.
72 9 Dec. 2020. "The Einstein Effect." Chicago Quarterly Review.
73 12 Dec. 2020. "Luoyang Railway Station: A Montage in 100 T-Shirts." Expanded Field. [Netherlands]
74 18 Sept. 2021. "An Osaka Girl." Flash Fiction Magazine.
75 4 Oct. 2021. "Yam Cakes in the Rain." Cagibi.
76 30 Oct. 2021. "Woman's Brain Sees Man." South Florida Poetry Journal.
77 1 Nov. 2021. "Highway Star." Sandy River Review.
78 11 Nov. 2021. "The My Left Leg Chainsaw Massacre." Intermissions. [Grattan St. Press Anthology, Australia]
79 25 Dec. 2021. "At Giovanni's." Green Briar Review.
80 27 Jan. 2022. "Little Baby Bananas." Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art.
81 27 Jan. 2022. "Spreader." Cirque.
82 24 May 2022. "A Tiny Island." Inscape. [Kansas]
83 1 September 2022. "The Argument as Overheard by Gertrude Stein." Permafrost Magazine.
84 18 September 2022. "Broadway and Montgomery." Avatar Review.
85 21 January 2023. "Boy in Electric Blue Parallels. Talking River Review.
86. 7 April 2023. "The Desiderative Infix." Chicago Quarterly Review.
87. 18 May 2023. "A Ride to Remember." Saranac Review.
88. 2 June 2023. "Shanghai Metro: 2019." 45th Parallel Magazine.
89. 15 December 2023. "The Woman Who Told Stories." Isotrope Literary Journal.
90. 12 March 2024. "Rhapsody on a Bad Panini." Drunken Boat.
91. 6 April 2024. "Workerolick."Burningword Literary Journal. Featured Author.
92. 26 April 2024. "A Tumult."The Alembic.
93. 26 April 2024. "This Thing for DJs."Litro.
94. 29 April 2024. "The Bridal Veil Falls." Broadkill Review.
94. 17 May 2024. "Reflections in the Eye of a Condor."Reed Magazine.
95. 2 December 2024. "Hello Columbus." Welter Magazine.
96. Forthcoming. "Whir Whir" has been accepted for publication by Saint Louis Magazine River Styx.
97. Forthcoming. "The Legacy" has been accepted for publication by Bookends Review.
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