Service Description

What can happen in a flash? A flash flood, a flashback, a flash of lightning—the quick and limited can be forceful, insistent. In this six-week course, we examine flash fiction and flash creative nonfiction through published examples, craft discussions, and writing prompts, developing drafts we submit for workshop—the heart of this class. Between sessions, we read submissions carefully and prepare written notes, bringing attention and care to our fellow writers' work and asking what each draft is doing, where it wants to go, and how to help it get there. Our conversations surface how these compressed forms often find cohesion through voice, accumulation, repetition and refrain, genre mimicry, and language as its own engine, rather than through traditional arcs alone. Students will leave with developed flash pieces, at least two workshopped drafts with written and in-class feedback, and a sharpened ability to discuss craft with intention and care. Designed for new and experienced writers alike. About the Instructor: Brinson Leigh Kresge is a writer, mover, and interdisciplinary artist with work appearing or forthcoming in the New York Times, Assay, 805 Lit + Art, Passages North, and Grist. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and BFAs in English and Dance & Choreography, and has taught on the university level for fourteen years. She was the 2025 co-director of Sarus Festival: for Site-Specific and Experimental Art, and leads retreats exploring the power of movement and creative expression to unearth one's truer self. Schedule & Enrollment: Five Tuesdays beginning May 19, with a built-in break the week of May 26 (the day after Memorial Day) to provide extra time to read, write, and send your first draft to the group before we workshop it together. Please note: There is no class meeting on May 26th. Workshop depends on attendance and involvement. If you know you will miss 1 or 2 classes, we can plan accordingly. If you plan to miss more than 2 sessions, please sign up for the next offering that better suits active attendence. Capped at nine students. Enrollment: Show up as you are; pay as you can. $65 — Community Rate (for those who need support to attend) $115 — Full Price (this covers the cost of the course) $150 — Pay It Forward (to support the community rate)