Flash Forms

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." In six words, the unidentified writer (sometimes attributed as Ernest Hemingway) prompts the reader to imagine a whole story. Who are the parents? What happened to the baby? Where are the parents selling the shoes? Who will buy them? A work of flash fiction or nonfiction gives us just enough information to suggest narrative and character, while leaving us to fill in the gaps with our imagination. In this workshop, we'll practice writing very short essays, stories, and prose poems, assessing what makes them evocative and memorable. We'll read very short works by Jamaica Kincaid, John Edgar Wideman, Lydia Davis, George Saunders, and others, with attention to how these writers create meaning through very few words, while gesturing towards context off the page. We'll practice writing flash with prompts given in class. Writers will come away with not only a toolbox for crafting this short form, but also with strategies for crafting vivid scenes and dynamic characters in fiction more broadly.