Join us for a class on flash fiction from 10 am – 4pm, August 29th, in Trustee Hall 303 at St. Edward’s University.

Is flash fiction—also called sudden fiction, micro fiction, short short stories, and quick fiction—a prose poem, parable, vignette? The definition is still being argued, except that it must be short, no longer than 2,000 words and as short as six words, like Hemingway’s famous story: “Baby shoes: for sale, never worn.” There is no formula, and there are several types, but one aspect is required: compression.

As a result, a writer finds herself forced to develop her craft by …

fine-tuning language
choosing signifying details
writing dialogue with subtext
creating images that resonate

… and more! 

Many online magazines are now publishing flash fiction, so this class is meant for those interested in writing the popular short form, but it’s also for those wanting to improve their writing overall.

About the instructor:

Nan Cuba’s novel Body and Bread (Engine Books), won the PEN Southwest Award in Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Award; it was listed as one of “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now” in O, Oprah’s Magazine, and was a “Summer Books” choice from Huffington Post. Cuba co-edited Art at our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists (Trinity University Press), and published other work in Quarterly West, Columbia, Antioch Review, Harvard Review, and storySouth. She is the 2016 Dobie Paisano Fellow; founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary center; and teaches in the MA/MFA Program in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, where she is writer-in-residence.