Session 3: “Writing Flash Memoir & Personal Stories,” taught by Dr. Mark Hall
June 15 and 17; June 22 and 24
10am – 12pm

Are you ready to start writing your memoir or personal stories, but don’t know where to begin? This course will introduce you to a short form essay, called “flash.” Flash nonfiction is writing about actual people and events, defined by a small, narrow focus and extreme compression, just 750-1,000 words. Flash says what you’ve got to say using as few words, and as much beauty, as possible. An accessible, playful, potent form, flash nonfiction is growing in popularity, online and in print. Good flash, you’ll see, is like a lightning strike, providing readers a brilliant “flash” of insight.

During our two weeks together, you’ll study excellent examples of flash from leading literary magazines, such as Brevity, SmokeLong Quarterly, Hippocampus, Tahoma Literary Review, and The Citron Review. We’ll identify and practice various craft elements that make effective flash memoirs and personal stories. In this discussion-based writing workshop, you’ll begin four new pieces, share and discuss your works-in-progress with classmates, and learn about submitting your work for publication. This course welcomes all writers (and aspiring writers), whether you’re new to the form or finishing your first collection.

Have you got a story to tell? Join us. Tell your story–in a flash.

Meet your instructor: For 35 years, Mark Hall has taught writing at eight different colleges and universities, from coast to coast. Currently, he teaches writing, rhetoric, literacy studies, and creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Around the Texts of Writing Center Work: An Inquiry-Based Approach to Tutor Education, winner of the 2018 International Writing Centers Association Outstanding Book Award. His creative nonfiction has appeared in The Timberline Review, Lunch Ticket, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, Passengers Journal, Hippocampus Magazine, The Fourth River, Tahoma Literary Review, and others.