Crafting Flash Fiction: Pack a Punch in Fewer Words with Tyler Barton

Monday, July 12-Sunday, August 15, 2021

A form as old as fiction itself, flash (prose under 1,000 words) has become a staple of the current literary landscape. Squeezing a story into 4 pages can be a challenge, but formal restrictions have the magical quality of bringing about innovation.

In this class, we'll read, discuss, study, and write flash stories to learn skills that can be used in any literary genre—compression, surprise, lyricality, and nontraditional plot structure. Through readings, exercises, peer encouragement, and instructor feedback, we'll experiment and grow in the small but fertile environment of the flash story.