Do you already love flash fiction or flash creative nonfiction? 

We do. You can read about our creative writing background here.

For those of you who don’t already know, flash is a short piece of writing that tells a complete story. How short depends on who you ask. Flash is sometimes defined as being under 1,500 words, but a story is also considered flash if it’s told in 1,000 words or 750 words or less.

Either way, these short reads often hold a lot of weight – an entire world of story – in a small space. Because they grab our attention and often take us on a deep emotional journey, they make for riveting short reads.

While the lengths vary, the love of flash pieces is strong across the literary community, and we hope, beyond. We’ve been fans of the form since we first learned about it and are always recommending pieces to friends and family. Now, we’re sharing our favourites, both old and new, with you.

Each week, we’ll share one flash fiction (a short fictitious story), one flash CNF (a short true story), and a poem, since they are short too.

Let us know in the comments what you think of our first set of riveting short reads.

Two Flash & One Poem – Our Selection of Riveting Reads

• “We All Know About Margo,” by Meg Pillow.

“Margo, who has hair that smells like rosemary and cigarette smoke and mint and plastic and honey and McDonald’s grease, runs her tongue along the edge of Andrew’s earlobe and whispers something that we all want to know.” 

Meg Pillow

• “Swerve,” by Brenda Miller.

“I’m sorry, I said, and I said it again, and we continued on our way through the desert, in the dark of night, with the contraband you had put in our trunk, with the brake light you hadn’t fixed blinking on and off, me driving because you were too drunk, or too tired, or too depressed, and we traveled for miles into our future, where eventually I would apologize for the eggs being overcooked….”

Brenda Miller

• “How to Triumph Like a Girl,” by Poet Laureate, Ada Limón.

“I like the lady horses best,

how they make it all look easy,

like running 40 miles per hour

is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.”

Ada Limón

Which one of these is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.

-Isabel & Marilyn