You can choose topics inspired by the ones that are touched upon in any of the assigned readings, but you may also surprise me with the content. You could write about your middle school biology teacher’s obsession with the sex lives of fleas.

You can choose topics inspired by the ones that are touched upon in any of the assigned readings, but you may also surprise me with the content. You could write about your middle school biology teacher’s obsession with the sex lives of fleas. You could write about your history of nose bleeds. You could write about your first bad kiss. In other words, your content can be quirky. It could also be boring in any other form. What I would like to see is experimentation with creative strategies. Your draft itself can be anywhere from 2-4 pages in length

Requirements: 2 pages

Hook Your Reader with Flash Nonfiction (image created in Midjourney)

Due date: Sept. 17 (by 11:59 pm)

Although the assigned readings for Weeks 4 and 5 do share some thematic concerns—if only to impose some cohesiveness in our discussion forum—, you are allowed to write on subjects other than personal and political issues related to pain, race, animal rights, and apocalypse. You can choose topics inspired by the ones that are touched upon in any of the assigned readings, but you may also surprise me with the content. You could write about your middle school biology teacher’s obsession with the sex lives of fleas. You could write about your history of nose bleeds. You could write about your first bad kiss. In other words, your content can be quirky. It could also be boring in any other form. What I would like to see is experimentation with creative strategies.

Your draft itself can be anywhere from 2-4 pages in length. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see the influence of the readings on how you structure your flash. However, you do not have to work with only one of the assigned readings as a model. You could adapt so that you are mixing forms/strategies used by assigned writers from weeks 4 and 5.

For example, you might draw upon the second-person technique of “After the Hysterectomy” (week 4) as well as the alliterative hyphenated words of “A Black Hairstory Lesson” (week 5). You might add footnotes as Stokley does even if you do not white out the rest of the page.

Whatever form you use, I would like it to be justified in some way by the content. In addition to submitting the flash essay via Turnitin.com in Canvas, I would also like you to compose a paragraph in which you explain the connections you are trying to make with the assigned readings. I also want you to tell me how your stylistic invention was meant to reinforce the message you wanted to convey. For example: the list format could be appropriate for an essay on obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you wanted to scream or lecture a writer, then, you might address the feelings that inspired you and the strategies you employed in order to transform what could have been a rant into a crafted response. If you do not want to relive negative feelings in your creative prose, you might choose a humorous or whimsical topic. Niya Marie’s contribution opens with a paragraph that reads like poetry. Her characterization of Miss Jackie would not be out of place in nostalgic fiction.

Put the explanation/justification after the end of the draft. Leave enough white space so I’ll have time to reflect before I read the “afterward.” Keep the explanation and the essay in the same file, however, so that Turnitin will allow you to submit both.