What makes a poem a poem and
a story a story?
Focusing primarily on short
fiction, we will explore the difference between prose poems and flash fiction,
between an epigram and microfiction. We will seek to define these separate genres and
read masters of these forms. Even better,
we will write prose poems, very short fiction, and epigrams– varying from one paragraph (or even a sentence!) to 3-4 pages.
Finally, since this is a Writing Intensive class, we will also write
reflections and essays that examine how these stories and poems are constructed
and how they elicit reader responses.
Learning Outcomes
Understanding of the
elements of story
Familiarity with workshop
procedure and etiquette
Ability to understand texts
from a craft perspective
Ability to analyze one’s own
authorial decisions
Texts
Selections from:
- Palm-of-the-Hand Stories, Yasunari Kawabata
- Samuel Johnson Is Indignant: Stories,
Lydia Davis -
Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories from Around the World Paperback
by James Thomas (Editor), Robert Shapard (Editor), Christopher Merrill (Editor)
- Hint Fiction: An Anthology of
Stories in 25 Words or Fewer,
by Robert Swartwood (Editor), Natalie McNabb (Contributor)
- The End of My Wits, Thomas Farber
- Various poems (handouts)
(this list may change)