Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook

Galef is an excellent writer, and the book throughout is a delight--he makes the reader want to immediately start writing.... He provides deft insights and suggestions on editing... and he suggests techniques that work well when applied to a small text. Best of all, each chapter provides examples of great flash fiction--from authors as different as Saki and Steve Martin--as well as ideas for readers to explore.--Publishers Weekly
Brevity is a thorough introduction to the form, offering a variety of strategies for composition, as well as a wide-ranging, international anthology linked to each chapter's focus. A relentlessly generative, eclectic, instructive, entertaining, and motivational text.--Michael Martone, author of The Flatness and Other Landscapes
If I had to choose just one book for my class in writing flash fiction, it would be this one. Practical, direct, wonderful examples, fun to read--if this book doesn't energize your writing, nothing will.--Robert Shapard, coeditor of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories
Brevity represents a useful addition to the range of current creative writing texts, combining an anthology of flash fiction with an analysis of the subcategories within the form and writing exercises that will inspire students. Galef's witty, welcoming tone will appeal to beginning and intermediate writers. Often, I felt so inspired by the prompts that I wanted to sit down at my computer and try the exercises myself.--Eileen Pollack, author of A Perfect Life: A Novel