Join fellow writers for a day-long workshop focused on flash fiction with author Pam Painter at Pitkin County Library (Aspen, CO).
Aspen Writers’ Network members receive a discount – $40 for AWN members; $95 for non-members – learn more about becoming a member here. Space is limited.
All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This workshop will explore the elements of stories under 750 words. To begin, we’ll discuss the concept of the unstable situation. Plot and conflict sit like boulders on these tiny stories although the tension in an unstable situation is the only drama necessary. And because first sentences are windows into worlds, we’ll write a lot of first sentences in a short amount of time. Next, we’ll experience the mystery and magic of prompts and how they arrive out of nowhere and immediately will conjure up six or seven new stories. Then we’ll discover how the words “what if” can lead to startling ways to continue and even complete a story. Finally, we’ll ride some of these new story beginnings to satisfying ends. The class will be fast-paced and exciting and most of all productive. I’ll send you home with a list of my favorite Flashanthologies and collections, places to submit your work, and inspiring quotes by writers to serve as future signposts. We have a whole day to write. A luxury. Let’s do it.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Pamela Painter is the award-winning author of five story collections and the co-author of the widely used textbook “What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers.” Her stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Five Points, Harper’s, New Flash Fiction Review, Ploughshares and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others and in numerous anthologies, such as “Sudden Fiction,” “Flash Fiction,” “Four Minute Fictions,” “Flash Fiction Forward,” “MicroFiction,” “Nothing Short of 100” and “New Micro.” She has received grants from The Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts, and has won three Pushcart Prizes. Painter’s stories have been presented on National Public Radio, and on stage in LA, NYC and London by Word Theatre, and on the YouTube channel CRONOGEO. Painter is a founding donor of the Flash Fiction Archive, established at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, in 2020.
