Advanced Fiction: Experimental Forms in Flash Fiction

This advanced workshop is for students who want to delve deeper into an aspect of flash fiction by experimenting with unusual structures. We explore the subgenre of flash fiction known as hermit crab flash, which borrows a familiar form of text as a narrative shell, such as a letter, a recipe, a multiple-choice quiz, a list, instructions, or a museum label. Other experimental forms include fairy tale retellings, ekphrasis, and the breathless paragraph and those that borrow techniques from poetry, such as anaphora. Students read and annotate several exemplary works and apply those lessons in their story drafts and revisions. Each week, the reading and writing are based on different forms; we look closely at how each form best serves the story while also focusing on voice, point of view, character, conflict, and rhythm. Throughout the course, we analyze experimental flash fiction by a wide range of writers, including George Saunders, Lydia Davis, Sei Shōnagon, Marisa Crane, Kim Magowan, Jasmine Sawers, Avitus B. Carle, Cora Frazier, and Carmen Maria Machado. Students receive extensive feedback on their work and by the end of the course have written and revised 15-20 pages of prose. Through the deep study and practice of writing in experimental forms of flash fiction, students learn to take risks in their writing and gain a deeper understanding of what constitutes a story, all while maintaining a high standard of polished prose. Though the focus is on flash fiction, the course also appeals to short story writers and novelists who are interested in exploring economy of language and experimental forms in their work. Toward the end of the course, we review opportunities for publication in literary journals and small presses.