One might think that the form of flash fiction does not merit much attention in either its reading or writing. A bolt can strike, fasten, unroll. To bolt can mean to transport urgently or make a quick flight.This workshop will explore the gift of attention that flash can bring, what might draw a person to flash (as both/and reader and writer), and how flash can enrich vision and re-vision in one’s writing practice. Reading will include very short works by Jean Toomer, Tina May Hall, Sofia Samatar, Gwendolyn Paradice, Sejal Shah, Melissa Goodrich, Rahawa Haile, and others. We will discuss how one can briefly but clearly sketch a grounded world, what weight an image might carry (or take down), choosing the most necessary and impactful details, and ways to build layered, textured prose, sentence by sentence.
Rosario Margate is the recipient of the 2020 Inprint Alexander Prize in Fiction and of the Manuel G. Flores Prize from Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. She is a 2016 VONA Fellow and a second-year MFA candidate in Fiction at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her flash fiction has been published in TAYO Literary Magazine and as part of the graphic novel anthology, KOLACHE, published by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Her collaborative work has also been exhibited in the 2016 show Looming, at the Aurora Picture Show. She is currently at work on both a novel and a collection of short stories, and continuing her Hagiographies flash fiction series.