Dear cris,

at first blast, I like this a lot--informative and chatty. The tone seems inviting, just right. Crunchy?

Granola

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From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of cris cheek [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 12:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: short form (very very early draft for some kind of flier)

We all know that prose can be poetic and poetry can be prosaic; but between seemingly unassailable monoliths of Fiction and Poetry, a common land of hybrid creative writing forms, less easy to classify, are proliferating and blooming. Such writing, often, but not always, takes short form.

Traditions that might be identified within such a frame, including the prose poem; the fable; the anecdote; the pensée and the philosophical fragment, appear increasingly lively. Joined with sudden fiction, flash fictions, the creative non-fiction essay and monikers such as the short short perhaps a trend becomes apparent. Toss the popularity of digitally texted and tweeted narratives, the creative use of status updates, the billboard, the scrolling LED and art-neon into that brew and we think a field sufficiently energetic emerges that is ripe to be celebrated and discussed, perhaps even theorized and hotly contested.

The Creative Writing cohort at Miami University, Ohio plans to host just such a celebration / symposium in the Fall of 2013. We expect to be inundated with proposals and suggestions as to how the emergence of short form, as a field of contemporary and historical creative writing practices, can begin to be mapped and taught.

Please help us to do so by making a proposal of your own: proposals will be accepted until November 30th 2012.



blah blah . okay i know my prose is impossibly crunchy


just an early attempt at something bordering on a definition

please do feel encouraged to shred it and rescript it et cetera


btw . . i wrote to Lydia Davis last weekend but have yet to hear back from her. Fingers crossed .


looking forwards,


cris