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

by H. K. Hummel, Stephanie Lenox

Overview

Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer's Guide and Anthology is a complete introduction to the art and craft of extremely compressed works of imaginative literature. H. K. Hummel and Stephanie Lenox introduce both traditional and innovative approaches to the short form and demonstrate 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.

Short-Form Creative Writing also includes an anthology, offering inspiring examples of short-form writing in all of the styles covered by the book, including work by Charles Baudelaire, Italo Calvino, Lydia Davis, Grant Faulkner, Ilya Kaminsky, Jamaica Kincaid, and many others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350019904
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/15/2018
Series:	Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

H. K. Hummel is Assistant 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, Boytreebird, and Handmade Boats.

Stephanie Lenox is an instructional editor for Chemeketa Press at Chemeketa Community College, USA. She is the author of the poetry collections, The Business, Congress of Strange People, and The Heart That Lies Outside the Body.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. A Long History of the Short Form
2. Picture This
3. Voice, Character, and Narrator
4. Moving Through Time and Space
5. The Microcosmic Sentence
6. How to Leap: Ah-ha Moments and Associative Logic
7. Translucent Design
8. Beg, Borrow, and Steal
9. Finding the Funny
10. Misfit Pleasures
11. Not So Fast! Strategic Revision


Conclusion: The Beautiful Lightning
Anthology
Author bios
Genre index

Editorial Reviews

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 & Writers

“A 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

From the Publisher