“Microfictions, prose poems, postcard-lit, tales that fit into the palm of a reader’s hand—a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” says instructor Andy Touhy. “I love and champion this genre because it can hold so much of life. Its brevity invites wit. Its immediacy forces identification. It practically swells with capacity. Perhaps best of all, in its ability to absorb an array of approaches, we find the perfect home for the expression of personality.”
In meeting one of this two-part course, for inspiration and guidance, we’ll closely read a selection of published flash, with an eye on length (roughly 100 to 1,000 words) and overall effect. How do these writers, we might ask, craft full, pleasing narratives in such tight spaces? From there we’ll respond to targeted prompts designed to help us find our own voice in the form.
Over the two-week break before meeting two, equipped with strategies for development, each writer will shape and polish a short-short either generated during our group exploration or begun in advance of our first meeting but influenced by our findings.
Meeting two will have us in workshop together, exchanging constructive feedback that honors and deepens our pieces, inspiring further revision.
Writers of all levels and any genre are welcome, and everyone can expect to depart with a store of flash material, if not a new palm-of-the-hand well on its way to finding a home in 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, July 25, 2:00pm-5:00pm
- Saturday, August 08, 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.