What the Heck Is a Flash Essay, Anyway?

Join Creative Nonfiction's Lee Gutkind and Brevity's Dinty W. Moore this Monday for a live chat about one of the most fun—and elusive—nonfiction formats.

“Flash fiction” is a format that’s captivated writers who embrace the idea that sometimes writing quickly can bring out their best. For a while now, writers have been talking about the power of “flash essays,” too. But just what is a flash essay, and how can you write a good one? Well, we have two great editors who can absolutely answer those questions.

For the next edition of our weekly live video series, please join us this Monday, June 30, at 1 p.m. ET for a special session led by Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine and the man Vanity Fair dubbed “the Godfather behind the creative nonfiction movement.” Lee will be interviewing Dinty W. Moore — an esteemed writer who has published in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine and many other publications, and is also the founding editor of Brevity, the journal of flash nonfiction.

Lee and Dinty will talk all about how to write great flash essays — and we’ll even have a special flash writing contest following the live session, with the chance to have your story published on Narratively.

During the live session, we’ll discuss two particular flash essays published on Brevity: “Swerve” and “Watcha Gonna Do?” so please give those a read before we begin.

This live video will be held on Zoom. Save the Zoom link here or click below to add this to your calendar. We’ll also send out an email reminder with the link on Monday.

Hope to see you all there!

P.S.: What did you get up to on the writing front this week? Did you have a new piece published — or just write one new sentence you’re particularly proud of? Head over to our Chat today (click below) and share your #WeeklyWin so we can hear all about it!