Short-form Creative Writing: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

A complete introduction to the art and craft of extremely compressed works of imaginative literature, this book, now in its 2nd edition, introduces both traditional and innovative approaches to the short form and demonstrates how it possesses structure, logic, and coherence while simultaneously resisting expectations. With discussion questions, writing prompts, flash interviews, and illustrated key concepts, the book covers prose poetry, flash fiction, micro memoir, lyric essay, cross-genre/hybrid writing and much more. Two new chapters explore how to spark inspiration and innovation, and how to take the next steps by collaborating with partners and preparing work for publication. In this revised and expanded edition, H. K. Hummel and Stephanie Lenox present the ultimate companion to writing short fiction, featuring microplays, new short-form tactics, and a dozen fresh anthology pieces by Eve L. Ewing, Ross Gay, Jayne Anne Phillips, Gertrude Stein, and Jean Toomer, along with one-sentence student workshops that spotlight small but powerful moves in the short form. The extensive anthology showcases sixty short-form works including microplays and pieces by writers from Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Canada, France, Greece, Bosnia, and the U.S., offering a vibrant mix of styles, forms, themes, and voices.

Sean Prentiss is Associate Professor of English at Norwich University, USA. He is author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave (2015), which won the National Outdoor Book Award for Biography/History. He is also co-editor of The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre (2014).

Joe Wilkins is Associate Professor of English at Linfield College, USA. His memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers: Growing Up on the Big Dry won the GLCA New Writers Award for non-fiction and his work has appeared in Georgia Review, Harvard Review and Slate among many other periodicals.