Class Description

Flash fiction and flash essays are very short pieces—perhaps a couple of pages, perhaps one sentence! Together, we’ll explore how flash offers readers strange and poignant little windows, peepholes, and portals into worlds, lives, themes, and scenes. We’ll play with the art of creating such glimpses, with their high level of attention to the beauty and dynamism of words and story-containers; we’ll also see flash’s poetic and experimental sides. We’ll discuss examples from writers like Lydia Davis, SB Divya, Sejal Shah, Jamaica Kincaid, and more; meetings will also involve generative in-class writing sessions, informal sharing, and an opportunity for one formal workshop. This course is perfect for beginner and intermediate fiction, nonfiction, and memoir writers who crave an introduction to this multifaceted form. Writers will leave with up to five flash drafts and the basic tools to continue exploring. Each week will include in-class discussions, prompt-driven in-class writing sessions of up to a half hour, short at-home readings, and different types of sharing. Weekly topics will loosely break down as follows: WEEKLY BREAKDOWN WEEK ONE: WHAT THE HECK IS FLASH? We’ll take our first jump into the big question of what flash is, then dip our toes in with some fun in-class writing. WEEK TWO: NARRATIVE FLASH We’ll define the concept of narrative and begin an exploration into how basic elements of storytelling like setting, character, and scene might play out in flash. WEEK THREE: ALAS, MORE NARRATIVE FLASH We’ll have a deeper look at concepts within flash narrative and methods for approaching them. WEEK FOUR: PROSE POETRY-FLASH FICTION CONTINUUMS We’ll see how flash lends itself to an overlap with methods that are often associated with prose poetry. WEEK FIVE: PECULIAR CONTAINERS We’ll examine some fun and unusual prose structures like those found in epistolary or experimental work, and we’ll do our first formal workshopping. WEEK SIX: A FLASH FAREWELL We’ll continue with formal workshopping and wrap up the little world we’ve created in our class together! INSTRUCTOR CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI is is the author of two hybrid novels. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared widely, in publications such as The Washington Post, The Rumpus, PANK, West Branch, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is currently an English professor and volunteer death doula. ​​

Cancellation Policy

If you withdraw from a workshop TEN DAYS OR MORE before the start of the class: You'll receive full credit toward another workshop OR a full refund (minus 10%, a transaction fee that is non-refundable and that we would otherwise be charged). If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive a refund minus 20%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We cannot offer credit or any refund. If you are absent on the day of your workshop or miss it for any reason, we are unable to offer any kind of refund or credit. If we have to cancel a class you have paid for, you will receive a full refund, without the service charge deducted. For our full listing of policies, visit www.PioneerValleyWriters.Com, Policies page (under Home). To withdraw and receive a partial refund according to the above, please get in touch with Joy at joy@pioneervalleywriters.org

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