The Interstitial Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the study, support, and promotion of interstitial art: literature, music, visual and performance art found in between categories and genres – art that crosses borders. 
The IAF Annex features a new original short story each week, leading up to the official publication of our genre-spanning anthology Interfictions 2 on November 2, 2009. This week we’re pleased to bring you our final Annex story, “Quiz” by Eilis O’Neal!
Eilis writes:
I had the idea for “Quiz” while I was on a trip. I was in bed, getting ready to go to sleep, and suddenly I just had a picture of this woman on a quiz show — except all the questions were about fairy tales . . . .
A lot of my short fantasy lives in the borderlands between genres. I’m not sure why, except that I like the ambiguity, the idea that people can read it in a variety of ways. Is the magic real, or is it just someone’s imagination? Are things happening in a literal way, or are they metaphor? In “Quiz,” the honest answer is that I don’t know. But the dilemma presented to the woman, the emotions she feels, and the choice she has to make are all real for me and, I hope, for the reader. And tangling them up in fairy tale language — real or not — helps me get to the core of these issues. Plus, I just like fairy tales.
Read “Quiz” now and make sure to check out the newly published anthology Interfictions 2. Tell your friends!
