Short-Form Creative Writing

H. K. Hummel is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA. She is the author of the poetry collections, Lessons in Breathing Underwater (2019), Boytreebird (2013), and Handmade Boats (2010).Stephanie Lenox is an instructional editor for Chemeketa Press at Chemeketa Community College, USA. She is the author of the poetry collections, The Business (2016), Congress of Strange People (2012), and The Heart That Lies Outside the Body (2007).

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:Although this book is a writing guide and anthology for the short form, Hummel and Lenox include sections on key concepts that are relevant to any class in writing fiction--for example, image, voice, style. The authors address thematic and stylistic concerns of brevity in recurring chapter features such as ‘One-Sentence Workshop,’ which allow students to try out aspects of short-form technique. The opening chapter includes an in-depth history of the short form, a rare offering in such ‘flash’ textbooks … The authors include work by writers as varied as Charles Baudelaire, Terry Tempest Williams, and Ocean Vuong, and the result is a thoughtfully produced volume offering variety in theme and approach, national origin, cultural background, and time period … Summing Up: Recommended. - CHOICE[A] comprehensive book with helpful sections on narrative voice, time and space, sentence structure, logic, humor, revision, and other integral elements of craft specifically geared toward the short creative prose form. The guide is filled with writing exercises and prompts, and includes an anthology of over fifty exemplary short-form pieces. - Poets & WritersA complete introduction to the art and craft of extremely compressed works of imaginative literature. Aspiring writers are introduced to both traditional and innovative approaches to the short form and demonstrate how it possesses structure, logic, and coherence while simultaneously resisting expectations … While especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Literary Studies and Writing/Publishing collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and aspiring writers. - Midwest Book Review

• List of FiguresList of TablesPreface for the Second EditionPart I: an Introduction to Short-form Creative WritingChapter 1: Revolutionary Short FormsChapter 2: Inspiration and InnovationPart II: the Craft of Short-form Creative WritingChapter 3: Making SenseChapter 4: Deep ConversationsChapter 5: Moving Through Time and SpaceChapter 6: Microcosmic DesignChapter 7: How to Leap: Aha Moments and Symbolic LogicChapter 8: Finding Your FunnyChapter 9: Misfit PleasuresPart III: Strategies for Short-form Creative WritingChapter 10: Beg, Borrow, and StealChapter 11: Not So Fast! Strategic RevisionChapter 12: What’s Next?Part IV: Short-form AnthologyAppendix A: Student WorkAppendix B: Genre IndexEnd NotesContributor BiosBibliographyIndex