Courses

Flash fiction invites playfulness and experimentation. Unlike the long short story, a flash story—a brief work of fiction ranging from 500 to 1,000 words—can be drafted in a single sitting. Although you have only a few pages (or paragraphs) to write a flash story, the fundamentals of fiction writing still hold. In this course, we will touch upon characterization, dialogue, point of view, detail and setting, and forward movement and plot by looking at a wide range of successful flash stories by Sandra Cisneros, Lydia Davis, Peter Orner, Venita Blackburn, and many other contemporary writers. We’ll discuss how the form’s economy and brevity challenge writers to hook readers from the very first sentence, to make judicious use of detail to imply the story, and to write toward zingy last lines.

Weekly prompts and Zoom writing sessions will encourage you to try new things, take risks, and use the writing process to discover your story and subject matter. Pamela Painter, who taught one of the first graduate workshops on flash fiction, will give a guest lecture, offering yet another perspective on the form. At the end of the five weeks, you will have written and received feedback on five brand-new stories.