Class Description
Recent years have seen an explosion in the popularity of “flash” or “sudden” prose: fiction and nonfiction of about a thousand words or less. Paradoxical as it may seem, the constraints of a low wordcount can open up an amazing range of narrative possibilities. This one-day class introduces writers to the short-short form by both exposing students to a wide range of styles in this genre and guiding them in their own experimentations. Students will read work by popular and groundbreaking authors such as Amelia Gray, Kathy Fish, Nicole Walker, Lydia Davis, Sarah Manguso, Brian Doyle, and others, with an eye to examining how each uses the compressed form. Through in-class exercises, students will generate new work (or, if they wish, revise work in progress), and share their exercises with each other. In addition to craft, the class will discuss the process of finding markets and submitting flash work for publication. Students will leave the class with a robust understanding of the breadth of possibilities available in this short form, as well as a sense of how to use such brevity to take their work in new directions.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.