This course focuses on writing memoir in flashes that are 750 words or less. We’ll write moments in your life, reaching back for flashes of insight. You don’t have to have a particular story about your life that you’d like to tell. My hope is that by establishing a writing practice—writing a little bit freely and often, you’ll encounter not just events that are important to you but the flashes of insights that attend them.

At the core of this course is the idea that art generates art. This means that our readings teach us about the legacy of non-fiction forms and about the possibilities of the future—and the future is you! We will journey in the art of short non-fiction prose in its various forms—including flash non-fiction, micro-essay, prose poem, zuihitsu, haibun—and comics! We’ll write short form prose inventively, playfully, experimentally, and in so doing encounter ourselves. Together we will develop a vocabulary for understanding the distinctions between and intersections of short non-fiction forms, and how we can translate them into our own voices and stories.

In our reading and writing we will explore family, the spirit of place, history, collage, the possibilities of mixed media and collaboration, and more. I will provide you with writing prompts. I’ll write with you. (I won’t ask to write anything I don’t want to write myself).

Texts may include Dinty Moore’s The Rose Metal Field Guide to Writing Flash Non-Fiction, Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Writing Memoir, Judith Kitchen and Dinah Lenney’s Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Non-Fiction, and various online resources such as River Teeth’s Beautiful Things blog.

Students are required write and revise 12 short pieces, which they will gather in a chapbook, keep a reading and writing notebook, and to come to class prepared to be a kind, attentive, and active participant.