How short can a story be? Consider Ernest Hemingway’s six-word classic: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. A tale told quickly can offer untold riches, which swell inside a reader long after the telling. "The question then,” says instructor Andy Touhy, “isn’t how short a story can be. But how deep can we make our very short stories. For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
In this half-day class, we’ll look at ways to craft full, pleasing narratives in tight spaces, completing generative exercises that will help us find our own voice within the form. We’ll discuss these exercises together and, optionally, exchange feedback. For inspiration and guidance, we’ll also closely read a variety of published short shorts, with an eye on length and overall effect.
Andy says: “Writers of any genre are welcome, and everyone can expect to depart with a store of new material, if not a tiny kingdom or two worth honing and marshaling into the world.”
About The Writing Salon's In-Person Classes
Before your class meets, you'll receive an email from The Writing Salon with more information about the class. If you have any questions about in-person learning, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at hello@writingsalons.com.
Andrew R. Touhy is the author of Designs for a Magician’s Top Hat, winner of the inaugural Yemassee Fiction Chapbook Prize. He is also a recipient of the San Francisco Browning Society’s Dramatic Monologue Award and Fourteen Hills Bambi Holmes Award for Emerging Writers. Stories from Secret of Mayo, his full-length collection and a finalist for the BOA Short Fiction Prize, have appeared in Conjunctions, New England Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, New American Writing, The Collagist, Colorado Review, and other literary magazines. He holds graduate degrees in literature and creative writing and has taught at SFSU, Academy of Art, and Ohio University.
- Saturday, February 22, 2:00pm-5:00pm
I enjoyed the class today and found Andrew to be a very pleasant and informative teacher. I would definitely take another class from him again if the opportunity arises. I sense that he has a depth of knowledge of the craft that we only began to see today in our limited time. Thank you.
WOW, is he a great teacher!! He is so knowledgeable, articulate, thoughtful, and generous! I learned a ton and really enjoyed exploring the short fiction form with him. PLEASE PLEASE get him to teach more classes at the Writing Salon.
Andy was a fantastic teacher in so many ways that I cannot enumerate them all. This would be a ten page essay. First of all, his broad knowledge of all things written in literature was fulfilling. I am a Berkeley graduate with a degree in English and I felt that his teaching was much better than the writing classes I took at UC Berkeley in the late 1980’s (I am getting old!) He made sure that we got our money’s worth in the small amount of time that we did have. Because of his helpful comments on my re-write in my story, I think this was the reason I got published, first time, in the forthcoming Queer issue of Pank Magazine.