FICT 89 — Flash Fiction Workshop: Lightning on the Page
Quarter: Fall
Day(s): Mondays
Course Format: Live Online (About Formats)
Duration: 6 weeks
Date(s): Oct 9—Nov 13
Time: 6:30—9:20 pm (PT)
Refund Deadline: Oct 11
Unit: 1
Tuition: $535
Instructor(s): Christine Sneed
Limit: 21
Class Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
Fall
Date(s)
Oct 9—Nov 13
6 weeks
Refund Date
Oct 11
1 Unit
Fees
$535
Instructor(s):
Christine Sneed
Limit
21
Recording
Yes
Closed
Characterized by its brevity and emotional heft, flash fiction is gaining in popularity for good reason. Flash fiction is equally suited for new and experienced writers, for poets wishing to try their hand at image-driven prose, and for fiction and nonfiction writers who might be struggling with or want a respite from longer-form fiction. In this course, our focus will be on writing flash fiction featuring what George Saunders calls “a line-by-line energy”—the trademark of vivid, precise writing. Through weekly assignments and workshops, the course is designed to inject new dynamism and play into your prose, whether you’re working on prior drafts or brand-new stories. We’ll look at stellar examples of flash fiction by writers such as Tommy Orange, Charles Johnson, Langston Hughes, Angela Pneuman, and Kathy Fish and prose poems by Robert Hass, Idrissa Simmonds, and Sean Singer, among others. During this course, students will have the opportunity to workshop six flash pieces in small-group workshops as well as the occasional larger workshop. The goal is for students to have six strong drafts of linked or stand-alone flash stories by the end of the course.
CHRISTINE SNEED
Author
Christine Sneed is the author of three novels, Please Be Advised: A Novel in Memos; Paris, He Said; and Little Known Facts. In addition, she has published the story collections Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry, The Virginity of Famous Men, and Direct Sunlight. She is the editor of the short fiction anthology Love in the Time of Time’s Up. She has received the Chicago Public Library Foundation's 21st Century Award and the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award, among other honors. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Ploughshares, and numerous other publications. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Tara L. Masih, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (ISBN 978-0978984861)
(Required) Sean Singer, Today in the Taxi (ISBN 978-1946482693)
(Required) Adam McOmber, Fantasy Kit (ISBN 978-1625570376)
(Required) Sean Singer, Today in the Taxi (ISBN 978-1946482693)
(Required) Adam McOmber, Fantasy Kit (ISBN 978-1625570376)