State of Flash in the Classroom An Introduction

In the past few years, English classrooms—whether in elementary schools or doctoral-level graduate classes—have become a safe haven for flash fiction. Professors are teaching collections of flash fiction, and students are bringing in flash fiction to workshop in their writing classes. And, as it turns out, there are few places where flash fiction shines brighter than in the classroom setting. Students feel safe with the imposed word limit; teachers feel relieved that students will likely read the entire story. They may even read it twice. Flash fiction is great for those who want their students to practice reading aloud. In a sense, flash fiction is emerging as an important teaching technology for the 21st century.

With this in mind, we at NANO Fiction asked readers, writers, teachers, and students to send us their thoughts about bringing flash fiction into the classroom.

We put out the call this past September, and both students and teachers responded. We heard from composition instructors who’ve split their classrooms in half and asked their students to explain the difference between flash fiction and prose poetry by using quotes from published writers. We read essays from undergraduate writers who’ve confessed that the first time they actually read an entire short story was when their professor introduced flash fiction to them. And, of course, we heard from teachers who one day needed something to fill five minutes of class time and ended up incorporating flash fiction into their lesson plans for years to come.

In this issue of NANO Fiction, we’ve included three essays from the Flash in the Classroom submissions. In the first piece, “’It Was a Simple Summer Day’ or Was It? Flash Fiction and the Study of Craft in the Classroom” Seth Horton investigates the importance of introductions in both flash fiction and teacher-student interactions by using Hannah Bottomy’s “Currents” as an example of a way to get students excited about reading, writing, and even homework. Alisa Golden’s “The Art of Flash Fiction and Handmade Books” puts the flash fiction medium up for debate by exploring her work with handcrafted books and the guiding principles featured at The Safety Pin Review. We round up our initial series of classroom essays with Forrest Roth’s meditation on moment. His essay “Regarding the Cruel Moment in the College Flash Workshop” delves into the “form’s intimate bond with language” and asks that teachers use patience when exploring new forms.

From what we’ve read, the state of flash in the classroom is thriving. Teachers across the country are open to bringing more and more flash fiction into the elementary school and university settings, and students in these environments are yearning for flash-specific writing workshops. Hopefully, these essays will inspire other students and teachers to bring flash fiction into their classrooms and their lives, and these essays will motivate them to continue to write about their experiences using the flash fiction form. (Perhaps they will even send some of that writing our way.) With that in mind, we are pleased to present the first installment of the State of Flash in the Classroom.

Thanks for reading,
Sophie Rosenblum
Associate Editor & Web Editor