One Saturday, 10 a.m-4 p.m. San Francisco
$95 members/$110 others (this class is not currently scheduled)
“No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.” —Isaac Babel
Flash fiction is an exciting and nuanced genre full of opportunities and surprises. The stories, though diminutive in length, must still contain all the elements of narrative construction. How does a writer compress plot and characterization into a few hundred words? Is it possible to elicit an emotional response in a reader in merely two or three pages?
“Every writer should be concerned about economy, should deliberate over word choice,” says instructor Josh Mohr. “Whether a short story writer or novelist, we should be scrutinizing every clause, making sure each syllable earns its space. In a sense, flash is the perfect genre to hone revision techniques.
“In this workshop, we’ll read a few wonderful short-shorts, and do a few exercises. “We’ll experiment and play,” says Josh. “Hopefully, after approaching flash fiction from some different vantage points, you’ll find a technique that resonates with you.”
Josh Mohr is the author of the novels Some Things that Meant the World to Me, which was one of O magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009, and the newly released, Termite Parade. He has an MFA from the University of San Francisco and has published numerous short stories and essays in publications such as 7×7, the Bay Guardian, Zyzzyva, The Rumpus, Other Voices, the Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast and Pleiades, among many others.