What is flash fiction (or sudden fiction or micro fiction or short short fiction)? We know it is short, but is it a story? Can such brief writing include the necessary elements of fiction like plot and character? This workshop will examine different theories of flash fiction and the strategies employed to maximize the emotional impact of such short prose. We will also look at the emerging genres of the flash novella and the flash memoir. Among the writers briefly discussed: Robert Olen Butler, Lydia Davis, and Steve Almond. The workshop will begin and end with a very short writing exercise.

with Chella Courington