Brevity
A Flash Fiction Handbook
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
In Brevity, David Galef provides a guide to writing flash fiction, from tips on technique to samples by canonical and contemporary authors to provocative prompts that inspire powerful stories in a little space. Galef traces the genre back to its varied origins, from the short-short to nanofiction, with examples that include vignettes, prose poems, character sketches, fables, lists, twist stories, surrealism, and metafiction. The authors range from the famous, such as Colette and Borges, to today's voices, like Roxane Gay and Bruce Holland Rogers. A writer and longtime creative writing teacher, Galef also shows how flash fiction skills translate to other types of writing. Brevity is an indispensable resource for anyone working in this increasingly popular form.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist Galef (How to Cope with Suburban Stress), a creative writing professor at Montclair State University who has also published many short stories, turns his attention to the unique genre of flash fiction, which, he explains, has become the catchall term for any minuscule narrative. After noting that Aesop s fables may be the ur flash fiction, Galef nicely summarizes how the form became popular in the 1980s; now there are magazines and online sites devoted to flash fiction (500-1000 words), microfiction (250-500 words), and even nanofiction, also known as Twitter fiction or Twiction (only 140 characters). Galef is an excellent writer, and the book throughout is a delight he makes the reader want to immediately start writing. He begins by describing the types of narrative most suited to flash fiction, such as character sketches ( Don t say that Alex is a good cook; say that his veal piccata has just the right amount of lemon ) and anecdotes ( One anecdote from someone s life... can reveal more than an entire chapter of her autobiography ). He provides deft insights and suggestions on editing, such as slashing and microsurgery, and he suggests techniques that work well when applied to a small text. Best of all, each chapter provides examples of great flash fiction from authors as different as Saki and Steve Martin as well as ideas for readers to explore.
