ENGL 070X. Intro Fic Wksp: Flash Fiction

In this workshop’s definition, a work of flash fiction is a complete work of fiction shorter than 1,000 words. The writer Yasunari Kawabata described his flash fiction works as “palm-of-the-hand” stories. Narrative Magazine, inspired by Ernest Hemmingway’s famous six-word story (“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”) specifically seeks six-word-story flash fiction submissions (Margaret Atwood: “Longed for him. Got him. Shit.”). In this new intro fiction workshop, we will collectively explore the possibilities of this form, and see what happens to our fiction writing when we require ourselves to write short short works. We will read works of flash fiction by dozens of 20th and 21st century authors, spanning genres and subject-matter and styles, and we will also write and workshop many original works of flash fiction of our own. Using generative in-class writing prompts, reading inspirations, and formal constraints, the focus on short short form will allow us to experiment widely in terms of both genre (historical fiction, literary fiction, experimental fiction, speculative fiction, etc.) and general fiction-writing mechanics (writing dialogue, POV and point of telling, voice, character development, etc.). This workshop is a great fit for students who want to try writing fiction, but have been hesitant to dip their toes in, as well as for students who are already working on long-form fiction pieces, and are curious to see what will happen to their work if they commit to writing short short fiction.

CR/NC
Humanities.
1 credit.
Fall 2026. Rothman-Zecher.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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