What should we do when we have the urge to write our stories but can’t figure out
how or where to start? This all-levels, interactive workshop provides strategies for
those seeking to answer this question. Our main strategy? Start small.

Our spirit animal for this class will be the hummingbird. The hummingbird is the only
bird that can fly forward, backward, sideways, and, for short distances, upside down.
Precisely because they are so small, hummingbirds can do things other birds can’t.

Likewise we’ll look at tiny texts and study the things that they can do because they are
small. How can attention to the tiniest literary creations challenge and inspire us?  How
can writing small trick us into writing our big stories?

Our time together will be a mix of craft talk, including insight into varieties of word-hummingbirds

such as the monostich, the 6-word memoir, the aphorism, the ten-second essay, and the American Sentence.

We’ll also cover the top ten things I’ve learned from writing tiny texts before rolling up our sleeves

and generating my favorite short form: the user-friendly micro-memoir, an exciting hybrid that combines

the extreme brevity of poetry, the narrative arc of fiction, and the truth-telling of creative nonfiction.

We’ll be sure to save time for sharing our work with our fellow writers.