Grackle art by Nick Wroblewski
A woman removes her skin each morning and hangs it up in her closet like an old dress. A scientist responsible for breeding oysters that are taking over the seas sacrifices himself to try to stop them. A man visits a waterfall of souls in Houston to see if he can find his dead father.
Flash fiction is a place where the most outlandish ideas can be brought to life to joyful or devastating effect. The condensed nature of the writing—an entire narrative packed into 1000 words or less—means you must draw people in quick, cut them to the core, and let them go without preamble and without a comforting conclusion. Want to write about things like spiders as budget teeth replacements for the poor or a beached whale who refuses to return to the ocean, then this is the class for you.
Every week we will write a flash piece based off of prompts from the stories and techniques talked about in class. Over the length of the workshop, we will read and discuss classic flash fiction authors like Russel Edson as well as looking at newer authors published in journals such as Flash Fiction Online and Apex. We will use postcards to inspire flash fiction, look at flash in terms of sonnets and other poetic forms, and explore how in medias res and cliffhangers are fundamental flash fiction structures. Lastly, every week we will share and receive deep feedback on each other’s writing.
In this class centered around generative writing, we will work to build a supportive community of adventurous writers looking to bring the fantastical into their fiction.
Andrew Kozma’s poems have appeared in Blackbird, The Believer, Redactions, Bennington Review, and Best American Poetry. His book of poems, City of Regret won the Zone 3 First Book Award. A former editor for Gulf Coast and a current editor for Reckoning, he currently lives and teaches in Houston.