What to Write This Week (10)

pop culture flash fiction

Reading: Read Taylor Swift by Hugh Behm-Steinberg, published in Gulf Coast Magazine.

This story won the 2015 Barthelme Prize. In his citation, judge Steve Almond wrote,

The story does what every great Barthelme story does: it casts a spell. It extradites us to a realm of strange wonders and incantatory rhythms in which we are forced to acknowledge that the heart and its deranged pursuit of love cannot be disabled or even diminished by our neurotic defenses.

Writing this week: Write a flash fiction that takes its title from a real or fiction pop culture figure. Make it a story about love.

Coming soon:

Next week, we’ll look closely The School by Donald Barthelme, referenced in Almond’s note on Steinberg’s story. “The School” is one of my favorite very short stories, one that I have assigned in undergraduate and graduate writing classes many times. We will be writing a story modeled on its exquisite form.

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