Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook,New

Product 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 shortshort 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. For more information, see davidgalef.com/brevity. Review If I had to choose just one book for my class in writing flash fiction, it would be this one. Practical, direct, wonderful examples, fun to readif this book doesn't energize your writing, nothing will. Robert Shapard, coeditor of Sudden Fiction: American ShortShort StoriesBrevity represents a useful addition to the range of current creative writing texts, combining an anthology of flash fiction with an analysis of the subcategories within the form and writing exercises that will inspire students. Galef's witty, welcoming tone will appeal to beginning and intermediate writers. Often, I felt so inspired by the prompts that I wanted to sit down at my computer and try the exercises myself. Eileen Pollack, author of A Perfect Life: A Novel Brevity is a thorough introduction to the form, offering a variety of strategies for composition, as well as a wideranging, international anthology linked to each chapter's focus. A relentlessly generative, eclectic, instructive, entertaining, and motivational text. Michael Martone, author of The Flatness and Other LandscapesGalef is an excellent writer, and the book throughout is a delighthe makes the reader want to immediately start writing.... He provides deft insights and suggestions on editing... and he suggests techniques that work well when applied to a small text. Best of all, each chapter provides examples of great flash fictionfrom authors as different as Saki and Steve Martinas well as ideas for readers to explore. Publishers WeeklyA fine source for chronicling the genre. Sean Hooks Los Angeles Review of BooksRejoice! A fun and incredibly useful creative writing text...highly recommended. Critical Angst About the Author David Galef has published over a dozen books, including the novels Flesh, Turning Japanese, and How to Cope with Suburban Stress; the short story collections Laugh Track and My Date with Neanderthal Woman; and the short story anthology 20 Over 40. He is a professor of English and the creative writing program director at Montclair State University.