Why I Teach It: Seven Masterful Flashes (and One Poem) I Love and Share

Plus, a cool announcement from Matchbook Lit!

Photo by David Todd McCarty on Unsplash

“She would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that day, she would exploit by incanting, ‘French film, French film’.” ~”Housewife” by Amy Hempel

(From Micro Fiction, edited by Jerome Stern).

Hey, this is cool! I’m so happy Matchbook Lit is back!

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Before I get to my list, I’m delighted to announce that the wonderful Matchbook Lit is back and they have a newsletter right here on Substack! Matchbook has always published amazing work, including Stephen Dixon’s stunning flash, “Wife in Reverse.” In a new project, I have collaborated with them to create lovely limited-edition notebooks for writers:

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You may enter the drawing to win a free one or purchase one or more on their website HERE. These make fabulous gifts as well!

THE FLASH STORIES I MOST OFTEN TEACH

Today, I’d like to talk with you all about seven flash fictions (and one poem) that hold a place of honor as my personal Flash Fiction Hall of Fame. These are pieces I go back to again and again, for their sheer beauty, craftsmanship, and originality. These are the pieces I most share, learn from, and teach. I’ve linked all the stories for you and given my reasons for 1) loving them and 2) teaching them.

NOTE: I originally had many more stories for this post, but it had gotten WAY too long. Look for future newsletters highlighting Sara Hills, Aimee Bender, Venita Blackburn, Gina Chung, Stuart Dybek, Pat Foran, Anne Carson, Sabrina Hicks, Kim Chinquee, Megan Giddings, JJ Peña, Meghan Phillips, Deb Olin Unferth, Diane Williams, Brady Udall, K-Ming Chang, Mary Robison, Patricia Q. Bidar, Bruce Holland Rogers, Joy Williams, Melissa Ostrom, K. C. Mead-Brewer, Josh Denslow, Etgar Keret, and more!

1. “Housewife” by Amy Hempel

What I love about it: This is microfiction at its finest. Hempel suggests an entire inner world for this housewife. This single-sentence micro clicks into place very much like a haiku. (Also, check out the mysterious, zoomed-in image above, which I think perfectly conveys so strikingly the duality of the woman.)

Why I teach it: To show flash writers how much can be done in the space of a single sentence. To show how to capitalize on nuance and suggestion, even in such a confined space. Nothing is overwrought or overcooked. It needn’t be. Here, Hempel demonstrates confidence not only in her deft prose, but in her intelligent readers as well.

2. “Sticks” by George Saunders

What I love about it: I love that this one piece drops itself into my brain unbidden, every so often. It’s emotionally devastating and weird and tender all at once.

Why I teach it: Look at that first line: “Every year Thanksgiving night we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he'd built out of metal pole in the yard.” See how it introduces strangeness from the get-go. How the strangeness pulls us in. It’s a fairly ordinary image, dad’s setting up a Christmas decoration of some kind, until we get the “kind of crucifix he’d built out of a metal pole in the yard.” And that one word/image makes its mark and carries through for the reader, slightly disturbing them, and then really disturbing them. Also, look at the leap made in the white space between paragraphs. The jump cut. This piece demonstrates how even the tiniest flash can encompass a lifetime, several lifetimes.

3. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

What I love about it: I love flash that is pleasing to the ear. I believe all writing ought to please the ear. There’s music here. The voice is so present and clear and compelling I feel like I can see both characters. It’s a piece I read before I was any kind of serious writer and it woke me up and delighted me with all it did to my heart and brain.

Why I teach it: Everyone teaches this one, of course. For me it’s Voice. Point of view. The brilliant use of direct address, the silence of the addressee, and all that says about the larger story. The piece demonstrates the breathless one paragraph structure, something very unique to prose poets and flash fiction writers. What it teaches about endings. How it lands hard with a question.

4. “The Two-Headed Calf” by Laura Gilpin

What I love about it: I wish I could remember who first drew my attention to this poem, but I have shared it enthusiastically ever since. The first time I read it, it I felt both exhilaration and sadness. I don’t know that, up to that point, I’d ever felt these competing emotions so deeply. There’s something wondrous in that final image. The calf is a freak of nature, sure, but his freakishness endows him with an utterly beautiful and unique gift. Whoosh.

Why I teach it: Yes, it’s a poem, but it does every single thing a great flash fiction does. It demonstrates emotion, movement, and resonance. Big time resonance. And it does so economically via strong, strange images and a shift in the white space between stanzas. I teach this piece to show all of this, with the prompt to write to a simple turn: “tomorrow / but tonight.” This prompt has resulted in some truly extraordinary writing in my workshops.

5. “Letting Go” by Pamela Painter (Paid subscribers may go HERE for my full analysis of the story in a post from a past Immersion Extravaganza. If you’re not a paid subscriber, there’s still time to upgrade your subscription and join us for the four-week event starting on Thursday!)

What I love about it: Painter knows how to thrust her reader right into an ordinary scene and make it feel so tantalizingly “off.” This line is everything in this story, but we don’t realize it right away: You were always a good listener,” my ex once said, “but sometimes you have to let things go.” How this line plays against the title, the unexpected turn, and that ending is *chef’s kiss* delightful.

Why I teach it: This story is an excellent example of a single-scene flash. A scene is a unit of storytelling in larger works, but in order to work as a stand alone flash, the scene must resonate beyond the confines of the scene, and this one certainly does. I love to teach this story because it’s also just a masterful example of how to build a character with a few deft strokes of description and brilliant use of diction (“take a tub”). It’s also a great example of how the past can inform the scene unfolding in real time and Painter achieves this with such a light touch.

6. “The Outing” by Lydia Davis The link is to a past newsletter of mine about her work that’s available to all subscribers. Here is the story in full:

An outburst of anger near the road, a refusal to speak on the path, a silence in the pine woods, a silence across the old railroad bridge, an attempt to be friendly in the water, a refusal to end the argument on the flat stones, a cry of anger on the steep bank of dirt, a weeping among the bushes.

What I love about it: Davis draws us in with her unique voice. She surprises with her approach which is both bold and simple. It takes more skill, this kind of writing, that doesn’t set out to be “beautiful” or “stunning.” There are no rich descriptions, no overcooked emotional manipulation. Davis trusts and respects the reader, indeed, she trusts and respects herself. Though I don’t connect with everything Davis writes, I recognize and deeply admire her genius.

Why I teach it: In this one sentence, Davis shows how it’s possible to leave out what needn’t be stated. The skill of subtext is vital for flash fiction writers. So much happens here, but we’re never privy to the argument. We are given anger, silence, and weeping only. Note, too, how much space is given to the setting. The road, the path, the pine woods, the old railroad bridge, the water, the flat stones, the bank of dirt, and the bushes. It’s a minimalist beauty flash writers might emulate, if only for once, to learn what’s possible. And flash fiction, no matter how brief, needs a turning point, a load bearing sentence, or shift of some kind, in order to truly “work” and be set apart from prose poetry. Do you see the turn here?

7. “Thirty-Nine Years of Carrie Wallace” by Jeff Landon

What I love about it: The self-deprecating humor and distinct voice at work here. We get a full sense of the narrator’s longing. I love how much this piece makes me feel, how much of it I can relate to, but this writer never bludgeons me with the Point of the story. I am moved, but my emotions are not manipulated. And that final paragraph stops time so gorgeously. All of Jeff Landon’s work leaves me feeling more tenderness toward the world and my fellow humans.

Why I teach it: This story is a superb early example of the fragmented structure, a form flash is so uniquely suited for. We get a blend of past and present in this, and these episodes work in conversation with each other, creating a rich, layered piece of storytelling. Landon has much to teach us about emotionally laden imagery and his trademark blend of humor and sadness. Our protagonist has lost his Carrie, and she, him. Regret hangs heavy here, but in the end we’re left with a feeling of acceptance, and the aching, imperfect beauty of living and loving. There’s something of the quiet exhilaration on “The Two-Headed Calf” in this piece as well. That’s an awful lot to convey in fewer than a thousand words, but Landon manages it beautifully. This story shows us emotional complexity in flash is not just possible, it’s necessary.

8. “My Life Is Not a Horror Movie Starring Lupita Nyong'o “ by Lis Ingram Wallace

What I love about it: Because it’s a story by Lis Ingram Wallace. Seriously, I love everything she writes. There’s an originality of approach and a vastness to her imagination. And for some writers, that’s all you get. Yes, this story is very cleverly wrought. But Ingram Wallace brings heart and horror and tenderness and devastation to her work that is unforgettable. That she does this in the space of flash is even more impressive.

Why I teach it: It’s a terrific example of parallelism and anaphora. See the back and forth at work between “I have not” / “I have never” and “But I…” This is how flash closely resembles poetry. This is how flash can use structure and poetic devices to heighten the power of story. This is how flash writers can do big things in small space. The experience this creates is not unlike the feeling of music in one’s chest. This piece is also instructive for keeping the reader guessing with an unreliable narrator. The truth becomes blurry here and we deeply sense the trauma that necessitates “telling it slant.”

I hope you enjoyed reading (or rereading) these stories, friends. I also love to direct students in my workshops to the annual Wigleaf Top 50, of which I was honored to serve as selecting editor in 2022. There’s no book to buy, just a wealth of links to fabulous flash fiction, making it a great free, easy resource for teachers. The annual Best Small Fictions and Best Microfictions anthologies are brilliant resources as well, and fantastic reads, along with the many Norton anthologies of flash fiction.

If you teach flash, I’d love to hear your favorites. Feel free to share in the comments!

P.S. THERE’S STILL TIME… UPGRADE TO A PAID SUBSCRIPTION AND JOIN US FOR THE ART OF FLASH IMMERSION EXTRAVAGANZA STARTING JUNE 19TH

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The FOUR-WEEK Art of Flash Fiction Immersion Extravaganza begins THIS Thursday, June 19th! There are several paid subscriber perks year round, but this event alone is well worth the cost of an annual or monthly subscription!

Some testimonials from paying subscribers:

"Kathy Fish’s The Art of Flash Fiction is a masterclass in craft and encouragement. Her generosity, insight, and support for emerging writers (like me!) make it a must-read." ~Felicia Babb Cass

"I so value your knowledge and what you've done, and continue to do, for the art of flash fiction. I learn and grow from both your incredible fiction pieces and your wisdom on writing (and life, too!). Thank you!” ~Diane E. Schmidt

"You are one of my favorite writers and any knowledge I can receive from you is extremely valuable. As a reader, I love a good long novel, but as a writer, I enjoy flash so much. Working with/towards an economy of language is exciting. I'm happy to be part of your Substack community! " ~Julie Evan Smith