Cooper Street Workshop: Crafting Structure in Flash Fiction

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Telling a story in 1,000 words or less may seem like a daunting task. Characters, setting, dialogue, conflict, beginnings, middles, and endings must all be crafted in such a way that these short short stories resonate with readers. This workshop will explore the ways in which flash writers bend structure to grip their audiences. From monologues and breathless paragraphs to borrowed forms (receipts, lists, recipes), playing with structure can reveal the story on the page. In this supportive workshop, participants will consider example texts and write to generative prompts.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Avitus B. Carle (she/her) lives and writes outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her stories have been published in a variety of places including Ghost Parachute, X-R-A-Y Litmag, SoFloPoJo, Necessary Fiction, The Commuter (Electric Lit.), and elsewhere. Her work was selected for the 2025, 2024, and 2022 Best Small Fictions anthology, the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2023 and 2024, the 2022 and 2020 Best of the Net anthology, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, PEN/O. Henry Prize, and the Best Microfictions anthology. She is the author of the flash fiction collection, These Worn Bodies, which won the 2023 Moon City Press Short Fiction award. Avitus can be found at avitusbcarle.com or online everywhere @avitusbcarle.

This is an in-person workshop held at the Rutgers-Camden Writers House. Please enter through the rear door.

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Host or Publisher The Writers House at Rutgers University-Camden