Overview

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. For more information, see davidgalef.com/brevity.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Galef
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
Imprint:   Columbia University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.326kg
ISBN:  

9780231179683

ISBN 10:   0231179685
Pages:   160
Publication Date:   08 November 2016
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments A Short Introduction Vignettes. Readings: Colette: The Other Wife ; Isaac Babel: An Incident on the Nevsky Prospekt Character Sketches. Readings: L. E. Leone: The Argument for a Shotgun ; Josefina Estrada: The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman Letters. Readings: Yasunari Kawabata: Canaries ; Phil Karasik: Mickey the Dog Phones Home Diary Entries. Readings: Will Stanton: Barney ; Mark Budman: The Diary of a Salaryman Lists. Readings: Sei Shonagon: Annoying Things ; Steve Martin: Disgruntled Former Lexicographer Fables. Readings: Anonymous: Untitled; Raphael Dagold: The Two Rats and the BB Gun Anecdotes. Reading: The peasant and the genie Prose Poems. Readings: Yusef Komunyakaa: Nude Interrogation ; Len Kuntz: Story Problems Soliloquies, Rants, Riffs, and Themes. Readings: Christine Byl: Hey, Jess McCafferty ; John Edgar Wideman: Witness Perfect Miniatures. Readings: John Collier: The Chaser ; Jeffrey Whitmore: Bedtime Story Intermission: Cutting Down. Bruce Taylor: Exercise Surrealism. Readings: Richard Brautigan: A Need for Gardens ; Donald Barthelme: The Baby What If? Readings: Wayland Hilton-Young: The Choice ; Dicky Murphy: The Magician's Umbrella Genre. Readings: Roxane Gay: The Mistress of Baby Breath ; Tara Orchard: My Love Setting. Readings: Bharati Mukherjee: Courtly Vision ; Alice Walker: The Flowers Twists. Readings: Luisa Valenzuela: Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye ; Saki: The Open Window Two Viewpoints. Readings: Robert Schipits: Dialogue Between Two Teenagers, One Interested in Cars and One Not ; Ryan Ridge: Shaky Hands & All Mass Compression. Readings: Bruce Holland Rogers: Dinosaur ; Susan O'Neill: Memento Mori Metafiction. Readings: Ptim Callan: Story ; Jorge Luis Borges: Borges and I Vanishing Point. Readings: Merilee Faber: We came around the corner ; Dean Clayton Edwards: It was pretending ; Davian Aw: She raised the glass ; Augusto Monterroso: The Dinosaur The Future Conclusion Bibliography Permissions Index

Reviews

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 read-if this book doesn't energize your writing, nothing will. -- Robert Shapard, coeditor of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories Brevity 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 wide-ranging, 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 Landscapes

Brevity is a thorough introduction to the form, offering a variety of strategies for composition as well as a wide-ranging, international anthology linked to each chapter's focus. A relentlessly generative, eclectic, instructive, entertaining, and motivational text. -- Michael Martone, University of Alabama

Author Information

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.

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