Workshop: Understanding Your Flash In-Person
Understanding Your Flash: How To Understand and Execute Short Prose Using Models That Publishers Look For, led by Sam Berman. This workshop is part of the 2025 To Taste Life Twice seminar.
Many writers work off emotion or prose in the short form––and those are important elements. But understanding the type of short piece you're delving into can be just as important.
This class will help writers define the style of short prose that works best for you, whether it be:
- The Odyssey (abridging a novel worth of info into a short, selective piece),
- The Joke (a short story that works backwards from a punchline),
- The Portrait (a single moment or a contrast of two moments where a character or narrator is observing to some emotional endpoint), or
- The Secret (when the last sentiment in a short piece informs the entirety of what's come before).
- Date:
- Friday, May 9, 2025
- Time:
- 2:00pm - 5:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall
- Campus:
- The Community Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Classes & Discussions Seminars & Conferences
Sam Berman is a short story writer who lives in Boise Idaho. He has had work published in Forever Magazine, Joyland, Expat Press, Maudlin House, the Northwest Review, The Masters Review, Vlad Mag, HAD, Hobart, CRAFT, Dream Boy Book Club, and Rejection Letters. He was selected as the runner-up in The Kenyon Review’s 2022 Nonfiction Competition as well as a finalist for the 2022 & 2023 Halifax Ranch Prize. He has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. He has forthcoming work in Back Patio Press, X-Ray and The Idaho Review, among many others. In addition to his writing, Sam is also the Director of Storyfort, a literary festival held during Treefort Music Fest every March in Boise, Idaho.