A graduate of Wagner College’s English department (class of 2011),  Jonathan Pigno is currently finishing his Master’s in Adolescent and  Special Education at Wagner while pursuing his goal of writing  professionally. He is a native of Staten Island, New York, and has resided there his entire life.  An avid fan of storytelling across multiple mediums, Jonathan particularly appreciates the graphic  novel and video game formats (both of which he researches and enjoys in  his spare time). As a writer, he is primarily influenced by the  Modernist and Beat periods and draws his inspiration from a wealth of  counter-cultural texts in the same vein.

Published in the on-line science fiction magazine 365 tomorrows, Pigno’s flash-fiction story “Atompunk Wife” stems from his fascination with science-fiction and  resides in a literary sub-genre centered on alternate versions of our  own history teeming with anachronisms and fantastical elements. Flash fiction is a kind of short story that is described as sudden, ultra-short, micro fiction. Pigno’s story  describes a day in the life of a suburban housewife who, faced with her  own internal unrest and a mysterious threat, decides to act upon her  feelings in a radical manner and empower her gender in a most  unconventional way. A commentary on women’s roles during the 50′s, Cold  War tensions, and the blossoming feminist sentiments of the post-Word  War II generation, “Atompunk Wife” marries its historical context with a ray-gun wielding beauty set on making a statement in just under 600  words.